Now and Then, Here and There episodes 14 on
by jonathan lane
Summary: Hamdo is dead, but the tragedy continues. Sara tries to raise Sis's children while Hellywood and Zadi Bars remnants hurdle closer and closer to war. After 8 months of delicate peace, the balance of power is beginning to shift, and war looms ahead.
1. Episode 14 Trying to Move on

15

Short history of Hellywood after Hamdo's death.

Shortly after Hamdo's death, the survivors of Hellywood began to rebuild their lives. Those from Zadi Bars built a sea side town on the northern coast of their island and began building ships from metal and wood taken from Hellywood's super structure. At the same time, however, the military elite from Hellywood who survived began attempts to rebuild their nation. They gathered all the military machines from Hellywood and all the troops who were willing (and some who weren't) together and clamed all the land around where Hellywood collapsed to be their territory. New Zadi Bars felt threatened by this, and this fear allowed a militant group, led by the former followers of Elamba, to seize control of the city and turn into a military state. They turned away Hellywood refugees, including woman and children who had been victims of Hamdo's cruelty.

Sara tried her best to restore New Zadi Bars to its rightful leaders and to convince people to allow former Hellywood soldiers and slaves to live amongst them, but the militia group vilified her, called her a Hellywood whore who was carrying a Hellywood bastard child, and that if it had really been forced on her, like she claimed, she would have an abortion and get rid of the little bastard.

Crying in shame and dismay, Sara fled the town with sympathetic townspeople who believed as she did and began a new village in the center of the island. Finding a good place on top of a large hill, Sara and her followers began construction of a little village that would be called Crestview, after her home town on earth. Soon, the village swelled in numbers as people from Hellywood began moving in, and people from New Zadi Bars, upset by the way things were being run, came to join her. It was very hard to keep up with everyone coming in, and with few building materials, they were forced to live in large tents. There were some buildings made out of stone and clay, but they were mostly public buildings for storing food, or schools, hospitals, and places for the leaders to discuss business.

Soon, however as the food supply began to go down all across the island, Crestview became the number one supplier of food for Zadi Bars and Hellywood alike. Both nations depended on Crestview's food, so Sara was able to keep them in check by threatening to cut off all food supplies to anyone who started an armed conflict. She hated supplying food to Hellywood, but as far as she knew Hellywood hadn't done anything to deserve their food being cut off. They mainly stuck to themselves for the most part.

Abelia stayed at Hellywood for about a month trying to find a way for Hellywood and Zadi Bars survivors to come together and form one nation. But the military elite would have nothing of it, and threw Abelia out of Hellywood. She went to Zadi Bars where she wasn't welcome and then went with Sara and helped create Crestview. But Abelia was never at ease with Sara's people and always considered their pacifism to be a weakness. When Hellywood began rearming itself, Abelia tried to convince Sara that they needed a defense force, but Sara refused to listen. When Sara did this, Abelia led a small group of people, former Hellywood soldiers who had left Hellywood with her and a few Zadi Bars people who wanted to follow her, out of Crestview and started an insurgent group to keep an eye on Hellywood and Zadi Bars, but mostly to protect Crestview from possible attack. They made it clear to Hellywood and Zadi Bars that if they ever attacked Crestview, they would have to get through them first. Abelia's soldiers were the best in the world at guerilla warfare. They were very hard to find, because their headquarters was in the rocky lands on the eastern part of the island.

Tabool lived though the Hellywoods collapse and continues to serve Hellywood. He is a normal foot soldier but has ambitions of being a high ranking soldier some day, and of taking of Hellywood from the stuffy old men who controlled it now.

Zadi Bars has become very rich by trading by ship with other far of islands and settling close by islands that have trees growing on them. They are the only trees nearby so they are extremely valuable.

Jonathan Lane

Prolong

Because ten billion

Year's time is so fragile,

So ephemeral…

It arouses such a

Bittersweet,

Almost heartbreaking fondness.

Sara tossed in her sleep, unable to find a conferrable position in a bed filled with children. One of her children, Rachelle, was kicking her in the chest in her sleep which caused Sara great amounts of pain. Sara turned and faced the other way, but now she was face to face with six year old Turine, with his thumb stuck into his mouth, and his teeth grinding as he slept.

With a loud sigh, Sara carefully took the covers off and tried to get out of bed without waking the kids. Sometimes she would step on one of their little hands or legs, and they'd wake up screaming and wake all the others up.

It was hard enough getting them to sleep at all. All of them, including Sara, suffered from nightmares which haunted them almost nightly. Rachelle dreamed about soldiers chasing after her in the dark, calling out her name and cursing her. When they caught her, they would throw her in a dark room with Sis's decomposing body and leave her there alone in the dark.

She was the only child who would tell Sara about her dream in detail though. Turine and the other children were too afraid to tell her about them and were many times too afraid to sleep.

As she walked over to the water bucket, a little girl who had stumbled into the compound a few days before grabbed her by the seem of her pants and tugged.

Sara looked down at the little girl and smiled. The girl was maybe four years old and was obviously a Hellywood survivor because of the tan cloths that she wore. She hadn't said a word since coming here but the look on her face said everything. Her eyes always wandered around, dazed, confused, alone.

"Yes? What is it?"

The girl looked up at her with her crystal blue eyes and tried to smile. "Wa-water." They were the first words Sara had ever heard her say.

"You want some water too?"

The girl nodded her head once and tried smiling again, but again she failed.

"Well, come on then. We'll get some water together."

Sara bent over and lifted the girl into her arms. She was surprisingly light for a four year old; she couldn't have weighed more than forty pounds.

The water bucket was outside their tent so Sara bundled the little girl in a warm wool blanket before heading outside. The chill of the night sky spread goose bumps across her arms and legs, her body began to shake as if she was in the middle of an earthquake. The little girl, warm in the blanket she'd been given, snuggled against Sara's body and held on tight for warmth and security.

In the distance, from where she was on top of a large hill in the center of the island, Sara could see the distant lights of Hellywood, still glowing in the distance. Memories of the time she spent there began to come to the surface and flood her eyes with tears, but she blinked back tears and forced the memories out of her head. That was the past, and there was nothing she could do about it. Better to forget it and move on. Her life was here now, caring for the children that Sis had left behind when she died.

Sara reached the water cooler and drew two cups of water for her and the little girl.

"Here you go," she said, handing the little girl her cup of water. After a moment of hesitation the girl reached out her broken little hands, still wrapped in bandages from the day they found her, and gently grabbed the cup. It shook a little as she tried to hold it steady, but she managed to hold it up to her mouth and take a sip.

Sara smiled down at her and looked up once again at the faint glow in the distance. When Hamdo died six months ago, most people thought the world was headed towards an age of peace and prosperity where both the survivors from Zadi Bars and Hellywood could live together without fighting. That, unfortunately, had not happened and never would happen if things continued to go the way they were. A militia group had taken control of the Zadi Bars refugees and now controlled a prosperous sea port on the northern coast, but they refused to allow former Hellywood soldiers, even the young woman and children who had been stolen from their homes and forced into slavery, to enter the town or become citizens of the New Zadi Bars.

At Hellywood, the military elite and those who had been fully indoctrinated before Hamdo's death, stayed inside what remained of the once powerful battleship and plotted their return to greatness. They were a small group, but they still maintained most of the military technology that had once made Hellywood's army the most feared force on the face of the earth.

The only place for refugees from Hellywood to go then was straight to Sara. After Zadi Bars blocked out all refugees from Hellywood, labeling them enemies of the state, Sara and a large group of other like minded people, mostly woman, left the city and created a refuge. Around the island, they were called The pacifists because they were the only faction on the island to have no military arm to defend them from possible attack.

Sara looked down at the child in her arms. The girl was shivering in the bitter cold and trying to snuggle up into Sara's bulging chest. Smiling, Sara went back into the tent and they both went to sleep in each other's arms.

Imagine the opening theme playing right here.

**NOWandTHEN****HEREandTHERE**

Episode 14;

Trying to Move on.

Abelia stared at the compound from her position at the bottom of the hill on which the little village was built. She looked at Sara as she walked out of her tent with a little girl in her arms and got a drink of water. She sighed. Sara shouldn't be out at this time, she might see her guerilla force and then things would get a little tricky.

Sara always insisted that she stay away, but Abelia knew what would happen if her force wasn't there to protect her people.

Sara was a hopeless pacifist, so much so that she refused to take the appropriate measures to defend herself and her people, so Abelia had to defend them for her. At this night, she had twenty well trained fighters stationed around the outer perimeter armed with rifles and a few machine guns. She knew the threat Hellywood posed from the south, even if Sara and her ignorant bunch of pacifiers refused to open their eyes and see that for themselves.

Next to her, Abelia's LT, a man who served under her in Old Hellywood named Ralltel, stared though a similar pair of field glasses, only he was looking south towards Hellywood.

"Anything?" Abelia asked in stern, commanding voice.

"Not a thing commander. Hellywood's leaders may be crazy but they aren't stupid. They won't try anything as long as they know were here."

"Good." Abelia looked up one more time and saw Sara enter the tent again.

"Take command here."

"Yes Commander Abelia."

It was funny sometimes, hearing her soldiers call her "Commander Abelia" instead of "Lady Abelia", as she used to be called back when she was commander of Hellywood's armed forces. That was the past though, now she was only Commander Abelia. Her men didn't follow her because someone else told them to, they followed her because they believed as she did, that the Pacifist Faction needed to survive if there was going to be a lasting peace on this god forsaken island, and if the Pacifists were going to survive, they needed to have someone defending them. Since they had no intention of doing so themselves, than she would have to do it for them.

Abelia mounted her hover bike and rode towards the south across the barren landscape. The land to the south was mostly rocky, with a few patches of vegetation fighting for its life to survive on what little good soil there was. Out of the entire island, this place most resembled the desert world they used to live in. Appropriate that Hellywood had just so happened to land here instead of the grassland farther north. Irony knew no bounds.

Although the surface was torn and rocky, her hover bike navigated the broken ground with absurd ease. Her force only had three of these bikes, but those three were constantly maintained to achieve maximum performance.

After about a three minute drive, she saw not too far off in front of her the Hellywood perimeter. It wasn't much of a perimeter; about a dozen soldiers on hover bikes patrolled the inside of a barbed wire fence about 3/4ths of a mile long.

Abelia, once she came in sight of the boundary into Hellywood's official territory, dismounted her bike and took out her field glasses once again. The soldiers, she saw, looked bored, tired, and inattentive. They didn't have the look of men expecting to go into battle anytime soon.

_Good _Abelia thought. Everything was as it should be. As long as Hellywood stayed on its side of the island, Zadi Bars stayed on their side, and they both left the Pacifists alone, the balance would be maintained. It had been this way for over six months now, but Abelia didn't think the peace would last much longer.

Tabool stood guard behind the barb wire fence which separated Hellywood from the outside world. Beside him, a young recruit, probably around nine years old, walked along beside him trying to keep up. He wasn't having a very easy time of it though because of the heavy pack, filled with rocks to make it as heavy as possible, he carried on his back as a part of his training. Tabool quickened his pace. The kid stumbles along trying his best to keep up, but the pack was digging into his back so hard it felt like something was biting him in the shoulder.

"Sir, can I have a break sir?"

"Shut up!" Tabool responded. He didn't have time to deal with this kid. It was bad enough that he was stuck doing patrol duty in the middle of the night, but now he had to train the kids they brought in too. He didn't know where they got these kids- certainly not from anywhere on the island that was for sure- and he didn't give a damn, as long as he wasn't the one who had to break them in.

As Tabool started to walk on, he heard the kid sit himself down with a loud thump, the sound a bullet made when it entered cloth, and start sniffling his badly running nose. Tabool stopped in his tracks and tuned around to face the kid.

"Get up," he commanded, trying his best to hold his temper in check but having little luck. The kid only crossed his arms and turned his head away.

"No."

Growling in anger, Tabool reached down and grabbed the kid by the shirt.

"I said get the hell up kid!" Tabool yelled into the kids face. What a disgrace, these new soldiers had no idea how to serve Hellywood, not like they did when Hamdo had been alive. Hamdo might have been an insane maniac, but at least he knew how to keep his troops in order; something none of the current leaders seemed to be able to do.

"I'm sorry sir," the young soldier cried out in fear, "I won't do it again, I swear."

"Shut up!" Tabool yelled and smacked the kid in the face nice and hard. Ugh, how did he end up with such a whiny kid as a patrol partner? Of course he knew the answerer; it was because this kid needed to be properly broken in, but that didn't make doing it any easier for Tabool. He hated patrol duty, and hated it even more when he had to do it with some lousy kid they had gotten from who know where.

Tabool threw the kid to the ground and started to walk away. As he walked, he heard the kid start to whimper behind him. Anger cursed though Tabool's blood when he heard the kids pitiful sniffling. Stopping dead in his tracks, without turning around, Tabool growled at the kid.

"Stop crying." But that only made him cry even more. He heard snot starting to spew out of the little kid's nose as he tried to choke back his tears. He wasn't having much luck though.

"Stop crying," Tabool said again, getting angrier now and starting to lose his temper. He turned around and walked over to the kid, fist clenched, body shaking in fury. The kid looked up and saw him coming. His eyes opened wide as a cats and he tried to run, but Tabool grabbed him by the back of his shirt and jerked him back.

"No, no, please, I'll stop," but Tabool didn't even hear him, he just started hitting the kid as hard as he could in the face. His fist went up again and again, driving down like a hammer driving a nail. The kid tried to scream out in pain but his mouth was starting to bleed. He put up his hands in defense but Tabool knocked them away. After a minute, the kid stopped trying to defend himself and just lay limp in Tabool's arms.

Finally coming to his senses, Tabool stopped hitting the kid and looked down into his face. Blood was oozed from his nose and mouth, large bruises covered his cheeks.

_Oh god, _Tabool thought, _what am I going to do? _

Lowering the kid to the ground, he checked for a pulse. None. A wave of anxiety washed though Tabool. Hellywood was tight on soldiers as it was, and its leaders didn't look kindly upon those who killed what soldiers they did have without good cause.

Tabool looked up from where he was and saw something beyond the perimeter. The light of the moon was reflecting off of something in the rocks outside. Tabool stood up and lifted his gun up to his shoulder.

"Who's there!" he cried out. No one answered. For a minute he just stood there, waiting, listening. The wind rustled through the bushes and made a sound like the crackling of a dieing fire; _Cokee_ birds sang their midnight mating song into the night sky.

Slowly, as to not attract attention from whoever was waiting outside the perimeter, Tabool reached into his side pouch, took out a pair of night vision goggles, and put them on. Through the green light of his goggles he peered at the rocks outside. Nothing moved.

Then, not far off, he saw a figure stand up and look to his left. Tabool increased the magnification and the figure turned from a far off point to a full sized human being, obviously a female Tabool noticed at once. As he looked, she lowered a pair of binoculars from her face and he saw immediately who she was.

"Well, well, well, Lady Abelia." A crooked smile crossed his face as he watched her spy out Hellywood's position. She had just given him a crazy idea.

Lifting up his gun, he pointed it at the head of the boy that he'd just killed, and pulled the trigger.

_BANG!!!_

The bullet ripped through the kids head and blew a hole right through his skull. Blood splattered all over the ground behind him and Tabool heard the distinct sound of cracking bones.

Alarms started to sound across the entire perimeter as search lights lit up the area outside. Tabool took a small walkie-talkie off his belt and spoke urgently into it.

"HQ, HQ this is base perimeter, we are under attack, I repeat we are under attack!" gunfire erupted off to his right as some trigger happy soldiers who thought they saw a target started killing bushes and small animals. Tabool shot a burst of automatic fire at where he'd seen Abelia and then ducked for cover behind a small mound of dirk. He'd surprised Abelia, but he knew how good she was at fighting.

But no return fire came from Abelia's position. He peered over his cover and looked at where he'd seen her, but she was no longer there. In the distance a small trail of dirt flew into the air as a hover bike zipped into the distance. Tabool smiled again. Nobody would question him once he said Lady Abelia had shot the kid. They would probably give him medal for bravery and maybe even a promotion. He tugged at the red scarf he wore around his neck in disgust. Soon, he thought, he'd be exchanging this rag for a green one, and all the privileges that went with it.

At his feet, the blood of the kid he'd just killed smeared his combat boots. Twitching in annoyance, Tabool wiped it off on the grass.

Just imagine the ending song playing right here.


	2. Episode 15 Regrets

Prolong

Because ten billion

Year's time is so fragile,

So ephemeral…

It arouses such a

Bittersweet,

Almost heartbreaking fondness

General Scholes, commander and chief off all of Hellywoods armed forces, stood up on a large podium to address his troops. As he walked up, one of the drill master jumped to his feet and called the troops to attention. As one, all two hundred Hellywood troops rose to their feet in rigid attention, eyes, forward, backs straight, heads held high with pride at being the world's greatest soldiers.

The General was a fifty year old veteran of the Unification Wars under king Hamdo. His head was dotted with spots of gray hair and wrinkles covered his old and weathered head. His face was stone cold and proud as if the eight months since Hamdo's death had never happened and Hellywood was still on the verge of world conquest. Seeing how old and senile he was, that may not have been too far from the truth.

Meddles from wars against former Hellywood enemies adorned his chest and made it look like a giant salad had been stapled onto him. His uniform was the same desert tan as his soldiers, but his was slightly darker and he wore a gold bandanna around his neck to signify his rank. Not that it much mattered now with all the meddles and ribbons he was wearing, but normally the only thing to distinguish him from the rest of his soldiers was that bandanna.

"Soldiers!" the drill master shouted from right stage, "salute!"

As one every soldier in the room raised their right arms, clenched their hands into a fist, and placed them over their hearts. The room was silent for a moment as the General gazed at the assembled troops before him with pride and disgust; pride that the soldiers before him were the best in the world, disgust that there were so few of them left. He was from another age, Tabool thought; he was used to seeing hundreds if not thousands of troops assembled together, ready for battle, with dozens of_ Tatsu_ battle machines and large four wheeled Mobile Fighting Platforms (MFP).

Raising his hands into the air, the General began to speak; "Soldiers of Hellywood, last night a fellow soldier was shamelessly gunned down by the traitor Abelia inside out territory. This senseless act of aggression by our enemies can not be tolerated if we are to remain a free and independent nation. Attacks on our soldiers and positions must stop!" he cried out and slammed his fist into the podium. The soldiers listening to him stared at him in shock. The General was normally a well tempered man who rarely –if ever- showed much emotion at all. After years of rule under Hamdo, he had been a welcome change from madness to reason. Tabool smiled when he saw the General this way. He was angry as hell, and that could only mean one thing; "My people," the General began again, a little more calm now, "we can not continue to allow this to go on. The traitor Abelia has been a thorn in our side ever since her desertion, but never before has she had the audacity to kill one of our own. Because of this outrage, our nation of Hellywood is, as of this very moment, in a state of war with Abelia and her terrorist group."

Cheers erupted form the troops. Tabool clapped his hands and raised his fist into the air in triumph. At last, after months of grueling peace and inaction, Hellywood was finally going back to war.

**NOWandTHEN****HEREandTHERE**

Episode 15;

Regrets.

Sara woke up with the rising of the morning sun. Rays of light penetrated the thin walls of her tent, sending long and thin shadows dancing across the ground like cheerleaders at a football game. _Cokee _birds, named after the sound they made at night, suddenly went silent as they, along with the rest of the nightly creatures, stopped their singing to admire the sunrise.

As far as Sara was concerned, the sunrise only meant the start of another day of hard work and regret. At least while she slept she could forget where she was and why she was here. While she was awake, however, she had to deal with reality; something she despised doing.

As she tried to rise to her feet, a sharp pain struck her in the chest. The baby was kicking again. It was kicking harder and harder these days, like it couldn't wait to get out.

"I can't blame you," Sara said, rubbing the large bulge of her belly.

Outside the tent, Sara breathed in the sweet sent of the morning air. A light fog rolled from the small stream at the base of the hill into the valleys below.

In the distance Sara could see movement around Hellywoods outer perimeter. Although she couldn't see what was going on, she already knew what they were doing; military drills. Even after losing so many men, their king, and their leader Lady Abelia, the military elite in Hellywood still held ambitions of conquering the world. Sara had considered cutting their food supply many times, but every time decided against it. If she did that war would almost certainly brake out. She couldn't risk that without just cause, and so far Hellywood wasn't doing anything that Zadi Bars hadn't done as well.

The sound of a motor bike caught her attention. She looked towards the south, where the sound was coming from, and saw a rider on a hover bike slowly making her way towards the village. When the rider reached the fence, she dismounted and started walking up the hill. Sara walked down to meet her.

The rider reached up and pulled her helmet off her head so Sara could see her face. Abelia.

Sara's heart began to pound. What did she want? Abelia never showed up unless there was bad news. Last time she had shown up, it was to warn her that Hellywood was rearming and that her village was in mortal danger and needed to start building a military arm to defend itself against possible attack. Sara, of course, had refused to do this.

"What do you want Abelia?" Sara said when Abelia was close enough to hear. Abelia continued to walk up as if she hadn't heard and stopped in front of Sara.

"I want you to cut off Hellywoods food supply," she replied coolly and without emotion. Typical.

Taken back by the request, Sara opened her mouth and closed it several times before responding.

"I can't d that."

"You have to."

"You know what will happen if I do that! They'll come down here with their army and tare this place apart," she cried out in frustration. Why didn't she just come out and say what she came to say?

"I know that. But you have to."

"Why?!" her voice started to crack as she started to lose her cool. Nobody on the whole damn island could make her lose her cool like Abelia did; maybe because she seemed to be only half human sometimes with the way she never showed any emotion and was always so matter of fact.

"Last night… last night a Hellywood soldier was killed inside their perimeter, and this morning General Scholes mobilized his troops to move against me and my men."

The news stunned Sara for a moment. For the last six months she had been working towards preventing war from breaking out on the island, and now it seemed that all her work was for nothing.

Seething in anger, Sara tried to calm her voice before responding, but found she couldn't do it. Her voice came out in a low growl, like a sound a cat would make before pouncing on a helpless mouse.

"What did you do?"

Abelia stood back for a second before answering and waited for Sara to calm down. When that didn't happen, she gave out a long sigh.

"Nothing that would warrant these actions against us."

"I don't believe you. They wouldn't just go to war and risk having their food supply cut unless you did _something_ to them."

"Ms. Ringwalt…"

"Sara," she cried out all of a sudden, "my name is Sara."

"Sara," Abelia corrected herself, "you should know more than anyone that Hellywood's leaders have never needed a reason to go to war in the past, what makes them so different now?"

"Don't forget, Abelia, that not long ago _you_ were one of those leaders," Sara snapped.

The second the words came out of her mouth Sara knew she had gone too far. Abelia had done everything in her power since Hamdo's death to keep war from braking out on the island, gone so far in fact that the military leaders in Hellywood had tried to have her killed.

Abelia, like always, didn't show much emotion at all, but Sara could tell she was angry by the way she raised her head slightly to the left and her eye twitched in annoyance.

Without a word Abelia turned around and began to descend from the hill.

"Abelia," Sara called after her and ran after her, "I'm sorry."

"What if I told you that they've been kidnapping kids again?'

Taken back by the question, Sara stopped short. Was she insane? Hellywood kidnapping children again? Impossible, where would they get them from? Kidnapping children from anywhere on the island would have been noticed, and Hellywood lacked the ability to travel to any of the islands out at sea.

Abelia turned, stared her in the face, and waited for an answerer, but Sara only looked at her. For a moment they stared at each other like two bulls waiting to charge. Neither broke eye contact as they both waited for the other to break the silence. Sara spoke up first.

"If you can prove it, than I'll do what you want. But I'm not going to risk a war without proof."

"Very well," Abelia said. She turned around and walked the rest of the way down the hill without turning back.

As Abelia reached the bottom of the hill, her second in command, Ralltel, came out of the bushes and approached her.

"So?" he asked in anticipation. Abelia walked past him and mounted her bike. Ralltel chased after her and asked once more as she started to put her helmet on.

"Where on out own" Abelia replied coolly. She started her bike and rode off, leaving Ralltel behind.

"On our own?" he said to himself, but than the meaning of her words began to sink in. they were on their own. "Ahh, shit."

"Sara," called Rachelle from the kitchen, "Turine spilled his milk again and it's all over the floor."

"I did not," the little boy replied, just as Sara walked in from the bedroom where she had been getting the last of the kids up from bed "Sara, she's lying. She made me spill it."

"Na-ah, you spilled it yourself. See Sara? It's all over his shirt too."

Sara looked the two children over and gave out a frustrated grunt. Sure enough, Turine was soaked with milk. In his hand he held his cup, painted green with small birds on the outside, upside down with milk dripping out of it.

Sara gave out a long sigh and looked Turine in the eye. She really didn't want to deal with this right now.

"She made me spill it, honest. She bumped me and made me drop my cup. She made me drop my special cup, see? There's a crack in it. Look, look there's a crack."

He stood up as high as he could and shoved the cup into Sara's face.

"See? Sis made me this cup, and she broke it!"

"I did not!" Rachelle shouted back at him, "You ran into me and dropped it you clumsy little idiot."

"Stop it you two," Sara shouted at them, but neither paid her any mind at all; they were too intent on their fight with each other.

"I am not an idiot!"

"Yes you are you liar!"

As the two children continued to yell at each other, Sara started to seethe with anger. Her hands closed up into tight fists and her body began to shake as she tried to control her emotions. Months of pent up anger, frustration, regret, and hate began to swell up to the surface as she listened to these two ungrateful children, whom she had raised and cared for since Sis's death, completely ignore her. As the two children fought in front of her, every bit of bitter emotion she had buried inside of herself, every feeling of remorse and sadness that she held, began to boil over. She shut her eyes and tried to calm her nerves like she normally did, but it wasn't working anymore.

"Sara," Turine grabbed her shirt and began tugging on it, "Sara, she's calling me names. Make her…"

"SHUT UP!!!" All of a sudden, without thinking, Sara lifted her hand and slapped Turine on the cheek. With a _smack _her hand connected with Turine's face and knocked him to the ground. The cup he'd been holding flew out of his hands and shattered into dozens of tiny pieces when it hit the floor. Pieces of green and blue clay flew across the room like tiny drops of rain when they hit the ground.

For a moment Turine lay on the floor, holding on to his cheek, too surprised to react. Then, after a brief moment, he turned, grabbed a piece of clay up in his tiny little hands, and began to cry. He didn't cry like most children his age would, he only clutched that piece of clay, held it close to his chest, and silently began to sob into his chest. Snot and tears rolled down his face like a stream and dripped onto the floor.

Sara stood where she was, too stunned and frightened to move, and watched Turine's body begin to shake and the tears started to stain his face. His sobs slowly grew louder and louder, but he tried his best to quiet himself down.

Rachelle walked over to him and lay a hand on his shoulder, but he only brushed it away and turned his back to her.

"Fine," she said, angry again, "be a baby if you feel like it," she walked out of the room, holding her head high and strutting out like a Hollywood queen. Sara held her hand over her mouth in shock over what she had just done. That cup had been the only thing Turine had had to remember Sis by, and she'd just destroyed it in a fit of anger.

"Turine… I'm- I'm sorry."

But he didn't seem to hear her. He stood up and started gathering the pieces that lay scattered across the floor. Sara bent over as best she could and tried to help him, but as she started to pick up the pieces he snatched them out of her hand. He looked her in the face, his bright blue eyes starting to welling up with tears again.

"Sis made me this cup Sara, she gave it to me…" but he couldn't finish his sentence. As Sara reached out to him, he suddenly rushed from the room and ran out the door. Sara ran after him, but because of her bulging chest couldn't catch up. She rushed out the door and saw him run down the hill towards the south end of town.

Sara tried to call after him, but he was already too far away to hear her, and besides, he wouldn't listen even if he had.

From behind her, the other children crowded the doorway and stared at her in stark disbelief. Sara had never been this angry before, she had never hit anybody or lashed out in fury. She had always treated her children with nothing but love and affection, and now in one moment, she had completely changed.

Sara turned around and looked at the faces of her children, their wide eyes filled with fear, they mouths gaping open like dogs panting after a long run. As their eyes focused on her, Sara began to tear up. After all this time protecting them, after all she had sacrificed to care for them and love them, she had just harmed one of her children.

As the tears started spilling out of her bright blue eyes and falling to the floor, she turned away and ran out the door.

"Sara," called one of the kids from the doorway of the house, who she couldn't tell, "Sara, come back."

Guilt ripped through Sara's body like a river of lava, flowing freely through her veins, seeping out through every hole in her body; her eyes, her mouth, here ears. Every sweat gland she had reeked with its hideous scent.

A new feeling-one much worse than the guilt-started to seep into her head; a feeling of failure. She had failed Sis. Sis had wanted her to take care of the children, and she couldn't even do that. Every day another child in the village died of mal-nutrition, or from injuries received before coming into her care. While her village was forced to provide Zadi Bars and Hellywood with the food they needed in order to maintain peace on the island, their own children were slowly starving to death.

Sara looked up and the sky and wondered if all her efforts had been for nothing. What had she accomplished by staying here? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She couldn't do Sis's job, she couldn't' care for the children in this village.

She put her hand on the bulge of her belly again and felt the baby inside of her kick. How could she hope to care for the baby when it came? Every day she tried to lie to herself that she hated the man who created the baby, but not the baby itself. But truth was, every time the baby kicked, every time she had morning sickness, every time it moved inside of her, she was reminded of the pain those men had inflicted on her while she was in captivity. She didn't want to have the baby only to hate it once it was born. She didn't want it to feed from her breast and have its touch remind her of the men who had stolen her innocence; or to look into its faces and see the ugly grins of her tormenters.

For the first time in eight months, Sara wished she had gone home with Shu when she had had the chance. Her place wasn't here; it was at home with her friend, her family, and her dreams. She had once wanted to be a writer; it seemed so long ago. it was her dream to write a best seller, and be asked to go on the Late Show with David Letterman.

"Sara Ringwalt," he would ask her, while she smiled and sat back comfortably in his big blue sofa, "where did you get the inspiration to write your book?" and she would answerer that it was only because of the support her loving family that she was given the inspiration to write.

But that was all the past now; nothing but false dreams cast aside like a discarded toy, never to be realized because of chance and mistaken identity.

_I should have cut my hair like my dad wanted me to_, Sara thought, but she had loved her hair too much to do that. She'd always thought that if it weren't for her hair, she'd be ugly and nobody would want her.

_If I had just done what he asked…_

She broke into tears once more. She tried to control herself, but found that she couldn't.

"Oh god!" she cried out into the air in desperation, "I want to go back. Please lord…" her voice began to trail off as her tears suffocated her voice, "I just… want to go home…"


	3. Episode 16 Falling into Chaos

15

Prolong

Because ten billion

Year's time is so fragile,

So ephemeral…

It arouses such a

Bittersweet,

Almost heartbreaking fondness

Abelia watched as a column of Hellywood troops, maybe twenty in all, made its way through the broken and uneven earth in the eastern part of the island where her headquarters was located. A _Tatsu _battle machine reared its head above the rest of the troops, keeping an eye out for a possible, no, likely ambush.

Most of the troops in this column wore red scarfs around their necks to show that they were cadets, soldiers in training, who hadn't yet accomplished all their training. The idea was that not many people would kill a child in battle; instead they might take pity on them and allow them to live. That, of course, had been Abelia's idea from the beginning, and had been one of her accomplishments that Hamdo had noticed when he was choosing a commander. Nobody had thought he would pick her, a girl who had been born to a slave mother; who had proven herself to be far to intelligent for the life of a common comfort girl; and who had risen slowly, very slowly, though the ranks to become one of Hellywoods most distinguished officers. Nevertheless, he did, and nobody had been more surprised than she.

In front of the Hellywood column two large cliffs rose up to either side of their path. The cliffs were far too large to march around, Abelia new, and their face was too steep to climb. They could only do one of two things, go back and try another pass, or blindly march forward into the narrow path.

But, really, there was only one choice. Hellywood officers were trained to move forward, no matter what, and never move back unless ordered by a supiear officer. Just like she had anticipated, the enemy column moved straight forward.

From her position from on top of a small cliff, topped with bushes and other small plants to provide cover, Abelia could see everything. Using her binoculars, she scanned the troops, trying to pick out the officers from the regular foot soldiers. Given the chance between life and death, she new, many of the regulars would desert and join her force. If she could take out the officers and veterans, she could use some of the teenage soldiers while sending the youngest ones to Sara to care for. She had little use for kids.

The commanding officer wasn't hard to find. He, like all Hellywood officers these days, had a flare for the dramatic, a need almost to be noticed and seen by everyone around him, and for it to be immediately recognizable that he was the man in charge. So, of course, he stood on the head of the _Tatsu_ with his chest thrust out in front of him, his back straightened out, and his arm waving for his troops to follow him.

Beside her, Ralltel began to snicker.

"What's so funny!" Abelia demanded, more than asking.

"Oh, nothing commander. It's just that, well, he reminds me a lot of you when you used to do stupid stuff like that.'

"Ahh, but there's a difference LT. I only did that when I knew I was safe because it was the fastest way to move around on a battle field. He does it because it turns him on."

Ralltel snickered once more but then turned serious again. The enemy force was starting to enter the kill zone, and didn't even know it yet.

Abelia made one more scan of the column and this time found the man she was looking for. Near the rear of the troops, a large, muscular soldier carried a heavy machine gun strapped onto his shoulder. Abelia smiled when she was him. This was the man she was looking for, the "rear guard' whose job it was to shoot anyone foolish enough to try to retreat. He was normally the largest and most loyal man in the group, and carried the biggest weapon of all to protect him from desperate "traitors" who were desperate to retreat. As long as this man was alive, the column would keep fighting until either he was dead, or they all were. He was going to be the first to go.

Ralltel snickered again when he saw her lift up her high powered sniper rifle and look through its sights.

"Ready when you are commander."

As the column entered the gorge, Abelia made a final signal to the troops. Using her signal mirror, she had stationed on top of the cliffs.

_Wait for my shot._

Ralltel lifted his gun to his shoulder in preparation for her shot.

Breathing hard, slow, Abelia put her crosshairs in the middle of the man's head, and squeezed the trigger.

**NOWandTHEN****HEREandTHERE**

Episode 16;

Falling into Chaos.

Grasshoppers jump in the grass to get out of the way as Sara made her way through the lush green dewy morning grass as rays of sun sent sparkles of light across the child earth.

It was a beautiful day by any objective standard; crickets were playing their morning lullaby for all to hear, the heat of the sun warmed her just enough to be toasty but not enough to sweat, and the air around her was charged with the sweet fragrance of new life and peace. Small animals rushed though the grass licking up the dew and digging for worms and other bugs in the soft earth. Yes, to any other person, it was a beautiful day.

Sara walked bear foot though the grass, over some scattered pebbles, and sat down on a large boulder overlooking the south side of town. In the distance, Hellywood stood like lonely tree in a desert, to the east, the rocky passes of the Eastern Mountains were Abelia kept her head quarters.

Sara tried to smile as she looked upon the island. Scenery like this had always calmed her down, lush greens, a sky and ocean the same color as her home back in Florida, and small-yet unmistakable- signs of life everywhere; nothing like the harsh browns and grays of the desert.

All she wanted was to be alone for a few minutes before going over to see the doctor. The children were all asleep now- they'd be up in a few minutes though, she new- and the villagers were just now getting ready to start the day. The only place in town that was open was the doctor's office, and that's where she needed to go.

Taking a deep breath, Sara stepped of the rock, taking care now to step on a small castle someone had built beside it, and made her way to the office. The building was nothing more than a small hut, built out of the wood of pine trees imported by Zadi Bars from islands out in the ocean, with a thatched roof and caked with mud to insulate it. It wasn't anything more than a dirty little shack, not fit to be lived or worked in as far as she was concerned, but it was the only place she could go.

Walking up to the door, she placed her hand on the latch and started to open it, but hesitated. Did she really want to do this? For a moment, Sis's last words flashed though her head; _don't hold it against the baby, _she'd said, Sara remembered with absolute clarity, _you can hate the man who did this to you, but I ask you not to hold it against the baby._

It would be okay, doctor Mirgrep was a friend. He knew about what had happened to her, even though she kept the details a secret; something he understood and never asked about. He'd understand why she wanted to do this.

She stood there, her hand gripping the door, sweating, shaking, not knowing what to do.

_Sis isn't here,_ Sara told herself, _Sis doesn't know. I can't take care of this baby. _

After a deep breath, she pushed the door open and walked inside, pulling down the sleeves of her jacket as she did.

_LT Tabool, I like the sound of that. _

Well, actually, LT in training, but finally he was on his way up the ranks. Not many cadets got the chance to become officers after they turned eighteen, the highest most ever got was sergeant, and even then a kidnapped soldier had to kiss some major ass to reach even that high a rank. Tabool understood why, even if he didn't like it. They didn't want anyone who had been kidnapped by force to achieve a high rank in the fear that he would promote discontent amongst the ranks and lower moral. Fortunately though, the higher ups didn't consider him a threat, for which he was most thankful.

He stood at attention, eyes staring into infinity, feet planted firmly on the ground, toes positioned at a 30 degree angle. In front of him, one of the ships LT's, a young man who was maybe twenty five years old, returned the salute Tabool gave him.

"Cadet Tabool reporting as ordered sir!" he shouted as loud and as deep as he could.

"At ease cadet," the LT replied coolly. Tabool spread his legs shoulder with apart, put his hands behind his back, and placed his fingers in a triangle shape, the position of Ease in Hellywood. The LT turned around and was handed a small green bandana by a drill master who was standing behind him, he then turned and faced Tabool once more, bandana in hand, and straightened himself out.

"Cadet Tabool, for courage under fire and in the face of danger, as well as performing your duty to your commanding officers diligently and with honor, you are herby awarded the rank of Cadet LT in Training."

Tabool reached out with both arms and accepted the bandana as it was handed to him. Pride filled his lungs like a gust of hot air and he felt like screaming at the top of his voice but he held it in like a good soldier; just like he'd always done when he's been mad or frustrated. He was really good at it.

After shaking the LT's hand, Tabool expected to be dismissed. The LT however, instead of dismissing him, snapped his fingers and a man carrying a piece of paper came in, handed it to the LT, and left the room without uttering a word. An awkward silence drifted though the air like a deadly air born virus, suffocating all who endured it, suffocating him like a hot summers day in the desert.

"Your first order cadet LT," the LT said, holding out the piece of paper for Tabool; who took it without a moment's hesitation, "you are to report to the control room immediately for further instructions. That is all, you are dismissed."

"Yes sir!" Tabool saluted once more and then retreated from the room as fast as he could. As soon as he was out of the LT's sight he ripped off the piece of string holding keeping his parchment shut and read his orders.

Cadet LT in Training Tabool.

You are to report to the ships central control room immediately after receiving these orders. Because of your experience, age, and expertise, you have been chosen to take part in a requisition party to recruit new soldiers to serve Hellywood and its leaders in its glorious war against Abelia and the traitors of Zadi Bars. This mission will be conducted by an expert team of brave soldiers who are willing and eager to put their lives at risk for the greater good and their nation.

General Scholes.

"What the hell"Tabool said, shock and bewilderment overcoming his nature to be quiet, "a requisition party?"

As hard as he tried, he couldn't figure out where the hell they were going to get new soldiers from. Zadi Bars was too powerful to risk a war with, the Pacifists in the center of the island would have Zadi Bars support in they starting kidnapping people from there, and Hellywood lacked a vehicle that could cross the ocean to visit the far off tropical islands. So where?

Tabool smiled in anticipation and delight. They'd found a way to do it, a way that nobody on the island would be able to find out about, and he was going to be a part of it.

He rushed though the hall towards the control room, smiling his crooked smile the whole way there.

"All right Ms. Sara, what can I do for you today?" doctor Mirgrep asked as Sara walked in though his door and hung her coat on a rack, "I trust your pregnancy is coming along well? It should be due any week now right?"

"Yes, it is." She replied, not looking him in the eyes and keeping her voice to a low tone. But the good doctor didn't even notice. He was so energetic that he sometimes failed to notice when people he new didn't quite act the way they should.

"Well that's so good to hear," he gave her a big smile, almost like a child would have when it found a new toy to play with; but his was older, more knowing, almost as if he'd witnessed all the cruelty mankind had to offer and yet still found the world a beautiful place. Sara wished she could say the same.

"Well," he said, walking over to where she was sitting and drying his hands on his shirt, "what can I do for you today?"

Sara didn't answer, couldn't answer. How could she tell this man that she wanted him to kill her baby? How? After promising Sis she'd have it, and care for it, and love it.

_You never promised her anything. She died, remember? She died and left me all alone with all those kids to take care of. I don't owe her anything._

Out of habit Sara grabbed hold of her shirt sleeve and started pulling it down over her arms to cover them up

"Sara?"

She tried to talk, but the words caught in her throat.

_Your hopeless Sara, this is for your own good and you're blowing it. Think of the baby. You can't take care of it; you can't even take care of yourself. _

But she couldn't kill her own child. It was alive, inside of her, kicking and screaming to get out and look upon the sunset and the grass, to smell the fresh air and the salt of the ocean, to hear the soft melody of a bird's song or a cricket's nightly violin play as beautifully as any musician.

_It's not a baby yet Sara, it's not a child. It's not your responsibility. You never wanted to have it anyway; it's not your fault. _

The baby kicked, almost as if in protest of what she wanted to do to it, as if to say _don't you even think about killing me._

"Sara," the doctor placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. she tried to turn away but he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her shirt sleeve away, reveling a series of scars running up and down her arm, "Sara, wha- oh god, Sara."

Unable to control herself any longer, Sara grabbed hold of his arm and buried her head in his shirt. Tears started rolling down her cheeks and onto his sleeve, but he didn't pull away, only held on as tight as he could with both arms wrapped around her body like, her father used to do when she was a little girl, and tried to comfort her. She didn't try to stop herself from crying like she normally did when she was around other people. It felt good to have a shoulder to cry on, to have someone there for here when she needed a helping hand, or an encouraging word.

"Oh Sara, oh sweetheart, how could you be doing this to yourself?"

He bent down and held her as close as he could. Once again, he reminded her of her father, his arms were and so knowing and kind.

"I" _sniff_ "can't do it," she sobbed, almost unable to speak because of her tears, "I just can't do it." She tried to say more but she no longer had any strength inside of her. She started to collapse but he held her up in his arms.

"I don't want to have a baby, I'm not" _sniff, _"I'm not ready…"

"Sara," he said stroking her hair and putting her head on his shoulder, "there's no one on earth who can better care for that child than you."

"No," she shook her head in defiance, "I can't… I can't, not anymore. I don't want to…" she filled her lungs with air and cried out as loud as she could, "I DON'T WANT TO!!!"

"Sara," he said pulling her face up to his and covering her arm again to protect her from prying eyes, "please Sara, don't do this to yourself."

"Please don't make me go though with it. I'll kill myself if you do."

"Shh, shh," he stoked her hair and held her cheek against his own, "it's not my decision to make Sara. If it's what you want, than I'll do it for you," he grabbed her face and turned her so she had to look him straight in the eye, "just make sure you won't regret it I you do."

Tabool couldn't believe it. He stood in a large room, covered from wall to wall with control boards and pilot seats, with nine other soldiers, all older and of higher rank than him, all dressed-like himself-in odd clothing; stripped of their uniforms and weapons to make them "blend in" they've been told. But what he couldn't believe was what General Scholes had just finished telling them about the content of their mission. He wasn't alone; all the other soldiers had equally shocked expressions on their face. It was the look of a little kid who'd just seen his first pussy, Tabool thought.

_Now that's just disgusting, _he smiled to himself.

The General finished talking and looked his men over one last time, his eyes trying their best to locate a flaw in his men, but he couldn't find one. He smiled after a moment and turned to his second in command, Major Talles.

"Major, you are in command of this unit."

"Yes sir, I understand."

"Good, carry on."

"Group," the Major shouted as the General walked out of the room, "attention!"

He saluted the general one more time before he left, and then turned to face his troops.

"All right me, take your thumbs out of your sorry asses. You are under my direct command for the duration of this mission. Remember, the object of this expedition is not to requisition soldiers; it is only to collect data and to familiarize yourselves with the environment. Do not do anything to draw attention to yourselves or you will face capital punishment upon returning to Hellywood, do you understand!?"

Snapping to attention, the soldiers answered "Yes sir!"

"Then let's move out!"

The troops rushed out of the room in two columns and good order, Major Talles leading the way. The halls were uncommonly empty for this time of day, Tabool noticed, but then he remembered that most of the soldiers were in the east hunting down Abelia in her mountains. Lucky for him he wasn't there getting shot at.

After a couple of minutes they entered a large sphere shaped room though a pair of double doors built in its side. The Major took out a small remote control from inside his pocket and ordered his men into the center of the room. Eager excitement could be seen on the faces of all who were there; even the oldest soldiers there were smiling like little children playing in a field. Tabool even began to shake as the excitement grew inside of him.

Major Berkin nodded to a man sitting inside a control booth, who then gave him a thumbs up in return.

"All right men, prepare yourselves for transportation."

Tabool, along with the others, sat down on the ground and made sure everything he had was tightly fashioned to his body.

The man inside the booth gave one final thumbs up and started counting down with his fingers.

_5…4…3…2…_

"Get ready men, here we go."

_1…_

Suddenly the room filled with a blinding white light brighter and hotter than even the sun; a pricing scream filled the room like the sound of finger nails scraping against hard mettle. Tabool held his hands over his ears to block out the sound, but he still heard it, he still felt it ripping into his body and tearing it to pieces.

As suddenly as the light and sound appeared they were gone. Tabool opened his eyes and looked around him. The room was gone, replaced by a dark alley in between two large buildings. The sky was dark with storm clouds, the ground soaked with sludge and manure.

The Major stood up and look at his troops.

"Gentlemen," he said, raising his right hand into the air and waving it in a wide arch, "welcome to Old Earth."


	4. Episode 17 Lost Souls

14

Jonathan Lane

Prolong.

Because ten billion

Year's time is so fragile,

So ephemeral…

It arouses such a

Bittersweet,

Almost heartbreaking fondness.

"Hellywood troops defeated by Abelia in Eastern Mountains, suffers major losses. General Scholes expected to ask for cease fire in light of their recent losses. Read all about Hellywood's failures to defeat Abelia's terrorist group!" news boys shouted from the city streets.

Hazim breathed in the salty sea air of his home town of New Zadi Bars. It was good to be home after a two week long voyage to the Tropical Islands to the north, bringing in exotic fruits and pine wood to sell to rich clients. Since very few trees actually grew on the island the wood they imported was the only source of building materials in Zadi Bars, and the entire island. He hated when he had to stay in the city though, the streets were open sewers and the ales hid the stench of junkies and prostitution. Animals ran through the roads, defecating where they pleased while people threw their garbage out of their windows into the crowded streets. This wasn't the city he'd envisioned eight months ago when Lala Ru had created the ocean; he'd envisioned a grand metropolis, where the survivors of the first Zadi Bars could live in peace and prosperity away from those who had enslaved them.

It used to be like that, the thought, but not anymore, not since Sara betrayed them. She'd insisted they allow their former enemies to live amongst them in the city they rebuilt. The controversy had split the city almost in two, until she and her followers were forced to leave. Since then nothing had been the same. Most of the cities farmers left with her, so now most of their food, as well as Hellywood's, came from Sara's people. she was holding the entire island hostage with her food, and they were letting her get away with it.

"Little bitch," he muttered under his breath, "god damned slut should have died along with Hamdo." He snickered when he remembered how they had driven Sara out of town. It hadn't taken much; sometimes words could do a lot more good than any kind of action. Calling her a whore was like putting a bullet in her forehead. When it became common knowledge that she was pregnant with a Hellywood bastard child and refused to abort it, people started wondering if she had really been raped at all, or if she was just making that up in order to excuse the fact that she was another slut who would sleep with anyone for a crust of bread. After that, she left the city and took almost half the city with her. Oh well, most of those people were former Hellywood sluts and soldiers anyway, it wouldn't have made any difference to him what she did if it weren't for all the damned food her people grew. He hated her even more for the fact that she sold her food not just to Zadi Bars, but to Hellywood as well, all in the name of keeping the peace he remembered her saying.

"Abelia's terrorist group defeats mighty Hellywood army in the Eastern Mountains, Military Council to consider sanctions!"

"Huh, now that sounds interesting." Rushing over to the nearest newsboy, he quickly bought a paper and read the cover story.

"The Zadi Bars Military Council yesterday gathered together to consider putting sanctions against Hellywood in retaliation for threatening the continued peace and stability of this island with their unprovoked attacks in the Eastern Mountains. If the sanctions are approved, all trade of any kind with the military nation will be forbidden for all citizens of Zadi Bars."

"Well it's about time," he smiled a large toothy grim and walked down the street towards his house. Maybe now, just maybe, Hellywood would learn a lesson.

**NOWandTHEN****HEREandTHERE**

Episode 17;

Lost Souls.

Tabool lay on his belly on the roof of a large building with a pair of high powered binoculars, spying out a large group of children, age's seven to ten he guessed, playing on the ground below him. He smiled as he watched them run and chase each other around, falling over benches and crying over bruised knees. What a bunch of pussies, did none of them know what it was like to feel real pain? When he was that age he could lug a thirty pound ruck sack around in the desert for hours on end without rest and could use a rifle with precision and accuracy. He'd been in this world for only two days and already he couldn't wait to get back. The people here disgusted him, made him want to throw up. A day of watching what they called TV was all the proof he needed that this entire world was inhabited by people who had never worked a day in their lives, had never known any hardship or suffering, and didn't know what it was like to look a man in the eye and decide that his life wasn't as valuable as your own. How could he and all the soldiers faithfully serving Hellywood be descendents of these fat pigs?

Tabool smiled as he saw the bully of the play ground push another little kid into a puddle of mud.

Major Talles walked up behind him and squatted down to his left.

"Well," he said, looking over the scene before him, "you holding up?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. I sent Nahrim to get our first kid; he should be back in about ten minutes."

"Understood."

"Let me see what you're looking at."

Tabool pointed to the bully, who was now stealing a candy bar from another helpless child, "him, right there, he looks good."

The major stared at the boy for a moment, analyzing whether or not he would be able to survive the rough and vigorous training Hellywood had to offer.

"Well, keep an eye out for him. We may want to pick him up later."

"Yes sir."

The sergeant left and walked down the flight of stairs leading to the living quarters on the second floor. Everything was going as planned, he thought; after all, Major Talles had been doing this for years.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no, I can't be late, not again, not again." Cameron Perry ran down the street as fast as he could with a heavy backpack on to the bus stop. He was late, as usual. His alarm clock hadn't gone off and he couldn't find his shoes, plus his little sister had stolen his homework, and none of his cloths had been clean…; nothing had gone right this morning. Sixth grade could be so annoying sometimes.

He couldn't be late again, he'd already missed three days of class because he'd missed the bus and couldn't get another ride to school, and it was only the third week of school. If he missed school again he'd never get out of detention. He quickened his pace, hoping his scrawny legs wouldn't give out before reaching the bus stop.

His left foot fell into a crack in the sidewalk, sending him sprawling on the ground and his backpack flying into a puddle of water. The zipper for his backpack came undone and all the papers inside spilled onto the street and blew away in the morning breeze. He looked up and saw his math homework rolling down the street.

"Oh, give me a break will ya?" he stood up and hobbled after it, favoring his right leg just a little bit. He could only imagine how stupid he looked, limping around in the middle of the street chasing after a rolled up piece of paper. Oh yeah, he was a sight to see. With any luck he'd see his face on YouTube tomorrow afternoon; some guy was probably filming him on his cell phone right now.

Cameron slipped on some loose stones and fell flat on his face, watching his homework tumble down the street.

"Ahh, I give up," he pushed himself to his feet walked/limped back to where he'd left his backpack, only when he got there he couldn't find it. Well, at least it wasn't raining.

He looked at his watch again, 8:00AM, the bus left at 7:45.

_Sigh, at least now I don't have to explain to why my homework's late. _

Looking himself over, he noticed that he had a hole in his Nebraska Cornhusker college jersey. That was the last straw, he could handle losing his homework and scraping his knee, hell he could even handle being humiliated and laughed at by thousands of people on the internet, but now he had a hole in his Eric Crouch football jersey, the one his mom had bought him for Christmas. That jersey was the only thing he had of any value, the only thing he could brag to his friends about. _Haha, I have a Husker jersey and you losers don't. _How could he brag now that it had a hole?

He turned around to go back home when he saw his backpack on top of a bush by the side of the road. Now how on earth did it get there? He limped to it, holding his hand over the cut on his knee. Something moved in the bush as he reached down for it. He felt hands grab his throat.

"Wha, hey…" and then, nothing.

Darkness, alone in a black void with the smell of blood and fruit filling his nostrils. Cameron opened his eyes but couldn't see anything; a large sack covered his head, letting in only a thin stream of light. He felt a throbbing pain in his head like hundreds of tiny insects were flying around in his brain, eating away at the walls of his skull to get to the outside.

_Where am I? _

Cameron sat up but felt a sharp pain. His hands were tied. Why were his hands tied?

The ground beneath him was shaking as if he were in a wagon, but why was the bag over his head?

"Hello?" he called out. His voice surprised him, it didn't sound like it should, "H-hello? Somebody?"

Nobody answered. He sat up and tried to peer though the seems of the sack that was over his head, but he couldn't make anything out.

Footsteps sounded behind him, clanking loudly on a hard metal floor.

"What's your name boy?" someone said from behind. Cameron froze, too afraid to speak, too afraid not to. A quiet sob escaped his throat.

"What is your name!" the person behind him grabbed the sack that was covering his face, jerked it off his head, and turned him so he was looking into the face of his kidnapper, "Answer me damn it, what the fuck is you name!?"

"Ca-cam-cam…" the man slapped him across the face, sending a sharp pain down his spine like a bolt of lightning.

"Do you understand me?" the man said. Cameron nodded his head vigorously, tears rolling down his smooth face.

"Then tell me your god damned name!"

"Cameron!" he cried out as the pain of his bonds dug deep into his wrist, "Cameron Perry."

The man put the bag over his head again and left him in the dark. He could hear the man's boots on the floor again walking away, and the sound of a heavy door slam shut. The silence was complete, nothing could be heard except tiny drops of water falling from the ceiling and splashing in a puddle on the floor. He heard small feet scurrying around on the ground, running up and down the floor like pebbles rolling down a hill. Something brushed against his leg, something small and hairy. He winced away and pulled his leg off the ground. Tiny squeaks came from the bottom of the chair he was tied to, first one, and then many, dozens of tiny little creatures squeaking at him and climbing up the legs of the chair. Rats. He tried to kick them away, but couldn't see what he was kicking at. Every time he swung his foot the unseen demons rushed away, only to return when his feet grew tired. Sharp pain shot up his leg as the rats started gnawing on his legs, biting though his shoes and pants to get to the meat underneath. He yelled out in pain as bites of flesh were torn from his body by rats that he couldn't even see. He called out for anyone who could hear him, anyone at all, but all that answered him was silence and the delighted squeaks of the rats.

Tabool looked though the glass at the boy Nahrim had brought in as their first test subject as if studying a mouse in a cage. The boy didn't seem very strong, and as he could see obviously couldn't handle pain, but he was young and healthy, which mattered more in the long run than anything else. Strength could be worked into him, and mental toughness could be taught. Given enough time the worm he saw now could grow into a formidable soldier like him, if he survived long enough to gain that sort of experience, which wasn't likely considering how fast he would be thrown into battle once sent back to Hellywood. That didn't matter much either, with enough of these kind of soldiers they could afford to lose a hundred in one attack and it wouldn't' cost them anything, they could always come back and get more.

The boy started thrashing in his seat, trying to knock off the rats that were crawling onto his chest, making them even madder than they were already. Well, he wasn't very smart either; if he just stayed still they'd leave him alone but he didn't seem to know that. How stupid could people in this world be?

Tabool suppressed a chuckle when the boys jumping made him fall over and hit his face on the metal floor. The rats immediately attacked his neck and bit a large chunk off his shoulder; the boy's shrieks grew louder and louder as blood seeped out of the sack and onto the floor.

"Okay, okay, that's enough, we can't present him to the general if he has holes in his neck," Tabool said.

"I guess not, but it is pretty funny to watch," Nahrim replied.

"Hell yes. We'll have to do this again next time."

Tabool opened the door and strolled into the room, while Nahrim chased the rats away with a broom he'd found in a closet. The boy lay at his feet, his breathing coming in short gasps, blood seeping though his pants and shirt. Tabool leaned over, grabbed the sack, pulled it off his head, and saw that tears were running down his face.

"So, Cameron Perry, do you feel like talking to me now?"

The boy slowly nodded his head in defeat.

"That's better. So, do you have any parents Cameron?"

Again the boy nodded.

"Do you want to see them again Cameron?"

"Ye-yes, please," he said, trying to stop himself from crying but not having any luck. No matter, he would learn how soon enough.

"You do huh? Well Cameron I'll make you a deal. You're not going to get to see them for a while, but if you do everything I tell you to do, than someday you'll get to go home."

"Someday? What do you want?"

Tabool kicked the boy in the head with the metal tip of his boot, smashing into his jaw like a rock though paper.

"You will address me with respect as your superior." Blood oozed out of the boy's mouth mixed with a couple of teeth, "you little bastards know no respect, NO RESPECT! YOU HEAR ME!? Well that's just something I'll have to teach you, huh? You want that?" he kicked the boy in the chest as hard as he could. The boy gasped for breath and said nothing.

"Hey, hey, hey, stop it," Nahrim ran up from behind, "god damn it Tabool, just cool it alright?"

Tabool backed away and looked Nahrim in the eye. For a moment they stared each other down, neither one willing to back away, each battling for supremacy. Tabool was the stronger of the two, and he knew it. He watched with great satisfaction as Nahrim lowered is eyes, conceding defeat and proving his inferiority.

The boy whimpered on the ground.

"Pick him up," Tabool commanded, "We're sending him back to Hellywood."

The sun was setting in the east, its rays just peaking over the peaks of the Eastern Mountains. The sky turned a hue of purple and pink, coating the ground and trees with dull orange paint.

Abelia stood on the rusted remains of a _Tatsu_ fighting machine, its long snake like body looking like a worm cooked in the sun, its head covered with sand fifty yards away, blown clean off by cannon fire. The bodies of a dozen dead Hellywood soldiers, from teenagers to old men, lay about the battlefield. The smell of stale blood and gunpowder drifted though the air like an invisible cloud, the screams of the dead mixed inside it with sounds of bombs and machine guns.

Since the war began a few weeks ago Hellywood's leaders had tried time and again to go on the offensive, but their efforts only cost them the lives of valuable soldiers and the destruction of their valuable machines. In all she counted over forty enemy casualties since the start of the war, while her own forces suffered less then twelve. For the last few days Hellywood seemed content merely to contain her forces inside the mountains, but with all their technology and weapons systems they lacked the one thing they needed the most, men. As long as she stayed in the mountains, there was no possible way for Hellywood to defeat her. At the same time, however, getting food from town was becoming more and more of a hassle; if the war continued without either side making any progress militarily, maybe Hellywood would try to starve her forces out instead.

Well, that's what spies were for anyway, to figure out what Hellywood's leaders were planning to do, and hers were the best.

Dust climbed into the air in the valley in front of her, sent up by the hover bikes of her well trained spies under the command of her trusted 2nd, Ralltal. As they approached she mounted her own bike and rode out to meet them, too impatient to wait where she was for them to come to her.

When they were within one hundred yards of each other, Abelia stopped her bike, dismounted, and let her spies come the rest of the way.

"Commander Abelia," Ralltal yelled, stopping his bike and running to her position, "I think we've found proof that Hellywood's been kidnapping children again."

He ripped something out of a bad he had slung over his shoulder and ran it over to her, holding it like it was a bomb he didn't want anything to do with. Putting it into her hands, he stood back and let her examine what he'd found.

Abelia reached out and took it in her hands. It was some sort of clothing, red and white, number 7 written on both sides, the name Crouch on the back, and small like it belonged to a young child. She'd never seen anything like this before, it was a completely different kind of clothing than what the people in Hellywood wore.

"Where did you get this?"

"We found it with the trash. What do you think it is?"

Abelia looked it over again, "I don't know, but I know who can tell us."

Ending Lullaby.

Always, all the time, I will be watching you.

So put your mind at ease and go to sleep.

This world, where we've grown accustomed to hurting each other—

This is where we were born and grew up.


	5. Episode 18 Innocence Lost

Jonathan Lane

15

Jonathan Lane.

Because ten billion

Year's time is so fragile,

So ephemeral…

It arouses such a

Bittersweet,

Almost heartbreaking fondness.

Prolog.

"Sara! Sara, its 9.00 O'clock, you have to get up!" Sara heard her mom's voice yell from downstairs. Forcing her eyes open, she looked at the alarm clock on her night stand next to her bed; sure enough it said nine o'clock. Too tired to care, she closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep, but it was no use. Once you opened your eyes, it was just about impossible to go back to sleep. Oh well, she could always just lie in bed for another hour, that was almost as good as sleeping.

"Sara, what are you doing? You promised you'd help your dad at the shop today!"

"Leave me alone…," she murmured, even though she knew her mom couldn't hear. Looking at the clock again, Sara sighed. It was only nine; she didn't have to be at the shop until ten. It only took ten minutes to get there if she jogged, she could potently sleep in for another fifty minutes and still get to the shop on time. There, that's what she'll do; she'll sleep for another forty or fifty minutes and then leave. Burying her head into her pillow, she tried to remember the dream she had last night. It was such an awesome dream, but the second her eyes opened she forgot what it was all about. She had a vague idea that it was about her running away form something, but she couldn't remember where she was running to or what she was running from. She kept falling down in her dream, that she could remember, the faster she ran the more she'd fall over. She didn't know what was chasing her, but the feeling of being chased still lingered in her tired legs.

"Sara, if you don't get up right now I'm going to throw your breakfast away."

"All right, all right, I'm coming already," Sara yelled as loud as she could, frustration and drowsiness clinging to her words. Wiping the sleep out of her eyes and stretching her legs, she stepped out of bed and staggered out of her room into her bathroom. Stepping into the shower, she gently washed the sleep from her body. The warm water trickled down her neck like a sweet summer's rain, falling from her finger tips and coating the room in a hazy white mist. As she ran her fingers though her hair, the last holdouts of sleep fell away like yellow and red leaves on a late autumn day.

Sara stepped out and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair shown with the radiance of a sunset sky, her face smooth and perfect. Smiling, she washed the last drops of water from her arms and put on her cloths. This was going to be a good day.

"Good morning mom," Sara called running down the stairs and entering the kitchen where her mom was washing dishes.

"Oh, good morning Sara. You sleep well?"

"Yeah, I guess so," she replied, opening the fridge and taking out a carton of orange juice. Pouring herself a glass, she sat down and opened up the newspaper to the opinion page.

"Well that's good. I made you eggs, there on the table."

"Thanks."

"Oh, your boyfriend called. I told him you'd call him back."

"Mom," Sara looked up and saw her mom smile, "Evan's not my boyfriend."

"I know, I know," her mom said as she started to laugh, "I just like to tease you."

"Well, it's not funny," finishing her eggs and juice, Sara stood and walked to the front door, "Christ mom, that's disgusting, how could you even say that?"

"Oh come on, why not? He's nice, and good looking too."

"Well, yeah, but he's my best friend, it'd be too weird," pecking her mom on the cheek, Sara picked up her backpack and headed for the front door, "I'm going to the shop now."

"All right, be careful."

"I will, see you later."

"Have a nice day."

Sara ran out the door and headed down the street, the cool fall October breeze sending a chill down her arm. In a month or so she'd have to start wearing a hoody, or a sweatshirt, but it never got too cold in Florida, not even here in Crestview. She missed the cold though, Florida was nice and all but it never got colder then 20 degrees. Living in northern Japan because of her dads' military carrier, she'd grown up with snow in the winter. A seventy degree winter just didn't feel right, even after all these years.

Turning off the road, Sara walked down a small dirt path though the woods, a shortcut she often took when going to her fathers' hobby shop. To her right stood an old abandoned house she used to play in when she'd first moved here. She'd once cut her leg on a rusty nail while crawling though a decaying hallway with a couple of her friends and had to go to the hospital for a week because it got infected. She'd missed a week of school because of that. Ahh, good times, good times.

It was only then that she noticed that she couldn't hear the birds singing. The quiet hissing of bugs in the grass around her ceased; the branches of the trees stopped swaying as the breeze disappeared. Suddenly a high pitched whistle split the air, pricing her ears and forcing her to the ground. A blinding flash of white light filled the air like the detonation of a hundred atom bombs, blotting the trees and the sky out of her vision. Covering her ears with her hands, Sara fell to the ground and curled into a small ball.

_Oh my god, a bomb must have gone off or something. _

A sharp explosion split the air and then silence. Looking up, Sara could see nothing but a blinding white light in all directions. Turning around she saw a lone figure standing in the path in front of her.

"Hello?" she called out, too scared to move.

The figure turned its head and smiled at her. A woman, a tall one, wearing some sort of military uniform with a holster at her side and some sort of device in her hand. Behind her stood two snake like machines, towering into the sky like the Twin Towers.

"Finally, I've found you Lala Ru, you're coming back to Hellywood with me. Get her!" The snake machines rushed forward with the ferocity and speed of attacking tigers. She tried to run but they grabbed her in their giant arms and lifted her off her feet.

Sara struggled to get free, wiggling for her life like a fish caught on a fisherman's hook, but the cold mettle clasp of the machines hand held her tight. The women let her struggle, amused by her vain efforts to get free.

"Let me go," Sara yelled, "let me go, please!"

The woman walked forward and grabbed Sara's chin in her enormous hand.

"Lala Ru. It was a mistake for you to run away from me again. I promise you it'll never happen again."

"No, no you've made a mistake, that's not me!"

The women looked into her eyes and leaned in, "Lala Ru, do you really think you can trick me like that?"

"I'm telling you I'm not…" before she could finish the woman slapped her across the side of her face with such force that for a moment her vision went blurry. Stars hovered around her head on invisible strings. She heard the woman giving her men orders, hear the return of the high pitched whistle, and then everything was blotted from her vision.

**NOWandTHEN****,****HEREandTHERE****.**

Episode 18;

Innocence Lost.

When Sara awoke she found herself lying face down in a large, soft bed, the smell of flowers and honey drifting though the air into her nostrils. Her head throbbed with a dull pain, like a balloon slowly expanding, deflating, and then expanding again each time bringing more pain then the last. The room she was in was filled with dazzling white and red flowers, their scent a tantalizing perfume on the tip of her tong. What could such a beautiful place be? It was heaven on earth, a garden of immense and wondrous beauty. The sound of trickling water splashing off small pebbles tickled her ear drums and brought back memories of sitting on the bank of the Shoal River skipping rocks across the water with her older brother. Paintings of clouds on a baby blue background made it seem like she was outside looking into the sky.

The dull pain slowly subsided as she gazed around the enchanted room. High above her tall windows allowed the light of the distant sun to gaze upon the children of the earth, giving life to all it encountered. What a perfect place…

However, the beauty of the room partly brought her back to her senses. Pulling herself up, she remembered walking down the dirt road to her fathers shop and being attacked by snake robots. They grabbed her, she remembered, then a tall woman in a military called her something, some sort of name, and then everything had gone black.

_Oh my God, I've been kidnapped._

A shudder of fear rippled through her spine as if somebody were running an icy finger up her back. No one else was in the room but she could not shake the feeling that someone, or something, was watching her. She stood and ran to the nearest door, but it wouldn't open. She tried again; once again it refused to move. Pounding her fists against the hard mettle door, she cried out for someone, anyone, but no answerer came; "hello?"

Her voice echoed off the door and though the dome that she was in, but still no answerer, "hello? Is anybody there? Hello…?"

The sound of boots pounding against the floor sounded outside the door. Voices drifted though the walls; low, wordless murmurs floating though the air like dragonflies on a summer morning. Sara backed away from the door, looking for a place to hide when it flew open and in strode the woman from before, followed tall man wearing a green and gold uniform. The mans eyes darted around the room as if looking for something, his pupils wide like those of a lost and rejected puppy looking for its mother.

"Well, where is she Abelia, where's Lala Ru? You said she was here."

Sara stood with her back to the wall, out in the open, without anyplace to run. She was caught like a mouse in a trap, so she stood as still as she could, hoping beyond hope they would leave her alone. The mans eyes stared at her from across the room working their way up and down her body, examining her with his beady puppy eyes.

"Abelia, I thought you said you had Lala Ru."

"Sir...?"

"That isn't Lala Run," he cried out, slapping the woman he'd called Abelia with one hand and pulling his hair with the other, "that isn't Lala Ru, it's not her, THAT ISN'T HER!"

The man staggered around the room aimlessly for a moment, pulling at his hair and hyperventilating. Sweat pored down his face in sheets and rivers, soaking though his shirt around his neck and his arms and leaving behind a dark stain.

"You told me you had her Abelia, you worthless bitch! Why can't I count on you anymore? You're completely worthless!" Suddenly his demeanor changed; his hands stopped shaking, his eyes calmed as sanity quickly filled them.

"You," he said, turning and facing Sara, "who are you?"

Sara hesitated. Not knowing what to say, or do, she stayed quiet; motionless, her eyes staring blankly at the ground.

"Who are you?" he repeated.

"I'm, my names Sara…"

"Sara, Sara, wonderful, splendid really. Sara," he reached his hands out to her, palms open as if wanting to give her a hug, and walked in her direction, "tell me, where is Lala Ru?"

"Wh-who?"

"Lala Ru, I know you can tell me, please, just tell me where she is and you can go home, I promise, mmhmm," he closed his eyes and smiled a giant gummy grin, his face one of eager anticipation; he honestly believe she could tell him where this Lala Ru was.

"I-I don't know who your talking about."

"Don't play with me!" he cried out suddenly, grabbing her shoulders and pinning her against the wall. His eyes, moments ago light and eager, filled with the blinding heat of rage, "where is she? Where is Lala Ru? Tell me, TELL ME! I have to know, I need her…" he voice trailed as his eyes began to fill with tears, "I need my Lala Ru." For a moment he sniffed away at his tears but soon had them under control. Straightening out, he stood tall once more, regaining his composer once more, "I know you know where she is, so why don't you just tell me, hmm? Did she trick you into hiding her; she's a tricky little bitch isn't she? A dirty scanky tricky little BITCH! WHY CAN'T SHE JUST DO AS I SAY?!" he reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders once more and threw her down, pinning her against the ground, "TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!"

"I don't know, please you have to believe me…" she cried in desperation, but it was no use. He slapped her across the face, his large palm making a loud snapping sound as it made contact with her cheek.

"King Hamdo, please stop," the women cried from the other side of the room.  
"TELL ME, TELL ME YOU LITTLE BITCH! WHERE IS SHE?!"

"I don't know, I don't know! Oh God, please, I don't know… don't kill me, please don't kill me…" she closed her eyes and tried to brace herself for the blows she was certain he would rain down upon her, but they never came. Instead he stood and paced the room, his right pointer finger in his mouth, the other arm held behind his back. Slowly Sara began to drift out of conciseness. Black bubbles spread from the four corners of her eyes…

Abelia watched as the girl she had mistakenly brought back to Hellywood lowered her head to the ground and passed out.

"Abe-Abelia, take her away, lock her in the dungeon."

"But my lord, she has nothing to do with this. It was my mistake, lord Hamdo; she's of no use to us now."

"No! Someone has to pay for what Lala Ru did to me! SOMONE HAS TO PAY!" he slammed his fists against the walls causing them to shudder, "I hate her, I _hate _Lala Ru, but I can't punish her… I could never hurt my Lala Ru. But she has to pay, she has to _pay! _Make her pay, Abelia, make her pay!"

"But sir…"

"Make. Her. Pay, Abelia."

"Ye-yes sir, I will do as you wish."

"Thank you Abelia, just bring me the real Lala Ru next time."

Abelia took one last look at the girl. She was very young, very beautiful too with that long blond hair of her reaching down past her shoulders; covering the floor like an ocean of golden leaves. She knew what would happen to her, but it didn't matter. Hamdo had given her an order, and she owed it to him to carry it out. She gave her soldiers a nod and watched as they dragged the girl out in their arms, dooming her to a fate worse then death.

**Modern Day.**

Outside men danced around small campfires, laughing and drinking their fill in celebration of their many victories over Hellywood's 'invincible' army. The valley was filled with the intoxicating scent of jubilation and victory. Thrice now Hellywood had sent its forces to overcome her, thrice now her men had beaten them back. Not only beaten them back, but inflicted such terrible losses on them that they'd been forced to fight on the defensive. The latest failed attempt to subdue her 'terrorist' group had involved two mobile battle platforms, the same weapons she had once used to subdue neighboring villages and kidnap their people. These weapons, under the command of a skilled and experienced commander such as herself, were almost unstoppable; put them under the command of an incompetent fool who didn't know how best to use their destructive power, however, and they were a disaster waiting to happen.

They became stuck while trying to navigate the narrow passes though the mountains, blocking the path for the foot soldiers and trapping the army in a narrow valley where her sharpshooters could pick them off at their own convenience. They hadn't killed all the enemy troops however; many of the men celebrating outside her tent right now were freed soldiers, some as young as ten, drunk with joy at having been rescued from their horrifying lives. For many it was the first taste of freedom they'd ever had, and they were wasting no time in learning how to use it. Some would decide to go live in Crestview with Sara's people, the younger ones mostly who merely wished to escape the troubles of war, but some of the older ones would stay and help strengthen her armies numbers.

It was only a matter of time, she knew, until Hellywood would come to her asking for a truce, which she would gladly accept. Although she was winning, she knew the chances of winning a long and drawn out campaign were slim. She had fewer men then they; Hellywood had more and superior weapons. As long as her men stayed in the relative safety of mountains they could not be destroyed, but if Hellywood's commanders ever decided that defeating her was a matter of survival they could try to cut off her food supply from Crestview, which would force her to take the fight out of the mountains and into the open plains in the center of the island.

Still, most of her men knew nothing of such things. They saw today's victory as a sure sign that Hellywood's power and might was failing, that their military was leaderless and weak. Although she knew her enemy lacked a leader who could defeat her, she also knew that their military, if properly utilized, was far from weak.

Lighting a candle, Abelia reached under her sleeping mat and grabbed a small book; her memoirs. Her hand glided over the soft leather surface of the book, the one she'd started writing three years ago. Opening it to the first page, she began to read the history of her life.

_I don't know why I'm writing my memories, I doubt anyone will read them or care what is written if they did, but I've found that writing about my life and my guilt often manages to ease the suffering I feel inside. I know why I suffer, but I also know that it is because of me and my actions that so many suffer this very day, so I must keep my anguish inside and hope that it is never reveled. I am meant to suffer; it is my just punishment for the crimes I have committed. I accept my pain with gladness and indifference. Still, there are times when the burden of my past regrets is too much for even me to bare, the crushing weight of my actions drives me closer and closer to hell every day. Therefore, I will write my life, and pray that someday those I have wronged will find it within themselves to forgive me my trespasses, even if I am undeserving of them. _

_My mother was a slave girl onboard Hellywood, kidnapped from her home at an early age and given to the amusement and pleasure of the ships soldiers like so many other women. I was a product of the torments she suffered in her short life of slavery. She died giving me birth, the first person to suffer because of my existence. In a way I'm glad she died. I can only imagine what she would have felt had she been forced to relive her torment every time she looked into the eyes of her baby daughter. My father, if you can call him that, raised me as if I were a son, teaching me the techniques and skills I would need later to avoid living the life of almost every other girl born into Hellywood. I always hated my father even though it was he that saved me from the life my mother lived until my birth stole her life. If not for him I would have grown up as nothing more then a nicely shaped piece of meat, although sometimes I wish for that fate. I've often wonder if it is not better to live your life being tormented then to live it being forced to torment others. _

_When I turned thirteen, I was given the chance to prove that I was too good for a life as a comfort girl. It was the chance every thirteen year old girl was given, although precious few actually passed. Five other girls took the trials with me, all of them failed. They all lived out the rest of their lives as sex slaves, but not I. No, because of my fathers training I was able to pass the tests and become a cadet in Hellywoods' army. It was hard for me. There weren't any other girls in the cadet core so the boys in my unit at first though I was there for their pleasure. There is nothing more cruel then a child stricken on his innocence and forced to believe himself a killer. Every day was a battle to keep from being abused. Some nights I would lay awake in my bed, listening to the boys whisper in low voices their plans for me when I was asleep. In the end it didn't matter. My commanders didn't know what to do with me at first, not until they realized just how good of a fighter I was. None of them wanted to step in on my behalf against their boys, and they never had to. They just had me fight during training. I never lost a match, not once. Twice I almost killed another cadet in a fit of rage. I never had to deal with plots to kidnap and rape after that, the boys were too afraid to go anywhere near me. I sat alone when eating; I didn't participate in any moral building activities. Everyone else in my unit left me alone, and I left them alone. _

_Life went on this way, until I was eighteen. At that time the commander of my unit recommended me for duty as an officer. I was one of only five cadets that were chosen for such an honor. The others came as no surprise, the sons of well known officers and noble men who'd been destined to become officers before they were even born, but I was a woman born of a slave girl, daughter of a common foot soldier who had not an ounce of noble blood flowing though my veins. It was Hamdo himself who commanded that I be given a commission. To this day I have no idea why he went out of his way to guarantee that I became an officer, but from that day forward I was in his debt. I served him without question, obeying every command, following out every order without thinking or consideration. I lived to serve him. _

Abelia closed the book and placed it back under her mat. The celebrating of the men had died down, most were now asleep while a few talked in low yet exited tones. Tomorrow she would visit Sara and show her what her men had found. That piece of cloth could mean the difference between victory and defeat for her. The outcome of tomorrows meeting could alter the course of history, and she was damned if she was going to let it pass her by.

Outside the full moon filtered in though the seems of her tent, lighting the room with its heavenly glow. Tonight she would suffer her nightmares, but tomorrow she would win a war.

Ending Lullaby.

Always, all the time, I will be watching you.

So put your mind at ease and go to sleep.

This world, where we've grown accustomed to hurting each other—

This is where we were born and grew up.

Preview for Episode 19; How Few Remain.

Cameron's back quivered with pain. Scares from the previous day opened around his body, covering his uniform with a thin coating of blood and puss. His arms buckled but refused to give. Sweat blinded his eyes.

"Ready, begin!"

The six remaining boys went down and touched their faces to the ground, only four came back up. Cameron was one of them. Again and again, the four of them went down and came back up to the rhythmic sound of their drill master cadence.

"One… two…three…"

"One!" they shouted as loud as their lungs allowed.

"One… two… three…"

"Two!"


	6. Episode 19 How Few Remain

Jonathan Lane

18

Because ten billion

Year's time is so fragile,

So ephemeral…

It arouses such a

Bittersweet,

Almost heartbreaking fondness.

Prolog.

Sara sat on a large boulder overlooking the southern end of town, staring off at the distant ruins which were the remains of the once proud tower of Hellywood. A throbbing pain split her head, but she ignored it. How many times she had sat here, she wondered, staring at the barracks in the distance, thinking about what could have been? It never helped; it only brought back the memories of her childhood, memories of her father fixing a model car at his hobby shop, her mother sipping tea on the back porch reading one of her romance novels, or her big brother playing football in the street with his friends. What were they doing now? How had they reacted when she'd gone missing? She'd like to think they were still looking for her, still holding on to the hope that she may one day be found, but she knew that couldn't be the case. They'd probably stopped looking for her months agowhen they couldn't find any trace of her and gone on with their lives.

Poor Ben though, her older brother must have been heartbroken when she went missing, even more so then her parents. He'd adored her ever since she could remember, walking her to school, making her chicken soup when she was sick, staying up late when she had nightmares as a little girl. She was _his _little girl, and he cared for her as if she were a princess. She'd, in turn, taken advantage of that and tried her best to make his life miserable. She didn't know why she enjoyed hurting him so much, but she could never resist the erg to be a little brat whenever he was around. What was he thinking about now?

The question was unimportant anyway. She would never see her family again, of that she was certain; in fact she didn't even know if she _wanted _to see them. Her shame and humiliation were too much for her to bear, how would they react? Would they believe her if she told them what happened, would they think she was making it all up?

She pulled her legs into a ball and tried to pull her shirt down over them to shield them from the cool breeze but her belly got in the way. She twitched in annoyance. Dr. Mirgrep had said he needed some supplies from town before he could perform the operation, and maybe he was telling the truth, but she suspected he was just giving her as much time as possible to change her mind. She knew his intentions were good, but even so she felt like strangling that well meaning neck of his.

In the near distance farmers plowed the fields of the fertile soil tying to grow enough food to feed the town through the year. Young children struggled in the hard earth along side their elders, forcing from the earth whatever wealth they could find.

Relatively little food would stay in the town though, most would be sold to Zadi Bars and Hellywood in exchange for raw material and supplies that they couldn't produce themselves. It was a delicate balance they maintained on the island, Zadi Bars and Hellywood alike depended on Crestview's food; without it both would starve to death. Both nations were too equally matched to fight each other, Zadi Bars relying on its superior numbers and Hellywood on its more advanced weapons, so as long as she supplied both with enough food to survive there was peace, and peace was something she was willing to sell her soul to obtain.

"Sara?" a small voice said from behind. Sara turned.

"Oh, hey Becka," she said, trying her best to smile. She still remembered not too long ago when Becka refused to speak to anyone, but she'd opened up a little bit to Sara over the past couple of days. She still spoke very little, and not at all to any of the other children, but they shared a special bond with one another; a bond forged possibly though similar experiences. All the other children under her care had been though hell during their young and tremulous lives, but none of them had been prisoners on Hellywood over a long period of time like they had.

Becka walked to the rock and allowed Sara to pull her up. They sat together staring off into infinity, uncaring at least for a little while about the troubles and the cares of the world they lived in. Becka placed her head on Sara's shoulder, stuck her thumb into her mouth, and drifted away to sleep. Sara ran her fingers though the young girl's hair and smiled. No matter what happened next, this was a good moment, and she was going to enjoy it while she could.

**NOWandTHEN****,****HEREandTHERE****.**

Episode 19;

How Few Remain.

"About… face!"

Cameron Perry turned around as quickly as possible hoping beyond hope that he hadn't made a mistake. The heat of the mid day sun trickled down his neck as if a small lizard were crawling down his back. His desert brown uniform soaked with sweat that dripped off the tip of his nose and trickled down the seam of his pants. Around him stood twenty other "recruits" all about his age standing perfectly still.

"Left…face!" the drill master, a huge muscular man with a cleft lip and a shirt too small to contain his bulging biceps, shouted. As one the "company" turned left. To his right one of the kids fell to his knees, unable to keep his balance in the soft clay. Nobody moved. Two soldiers walked up from behind and grabbed the fallen kid by the shoulders, hauling him onto his feet and dragging him into the dark confines of the barracks. Still, nobody moved. They didn't want to get involved; they didn't care what happened to that other boy as long as the same fate wasn't bestowed upon them. The cries of the boy drifted from the forts interior, followed by the distinct crack of a whip and more screams. Again and again the sound of the whip pierced the desert air, again and again the screams of the boy followed them, until they heard only the whip with no screams to follow on its heals.

"Right…face!"

They turned.

"Sa…lute!"

As one they balled their hands into fists and held them over their hearts. The troops who'd dragged the boy off returned and joked with each other, their hands and uniforms stained with purplish blood.

"Right…face!"

Cameron knew better then to move on that command; you weren't allowed to move when saluting. Not everyone remembered. Three others, one directly behind him, moved when they weren't supposed to and were quickly dragged away by the on looking soldiers. It was a game of sorts, a sick perverted game played for the amusement and pleasure of the troops watching. Make a mistake by doing a command the wrong way, and you were "out." When you were out, you were fare game. A beating was the least you had to worry about when that happened. But hey, the winner earned double rations and two hours extra sleep the next day, when they played the game again. So far, he hadn't won.

"As you were," the drill master said, "Order… arms!"

One cadet was too slow to lower his hands to his side, a minor mistake but just enough to draw the attention of the master. With nod, another soldier ran up and dragged him, screaming for his life, away from the formation. Silence ensued.

The drill master continued.

"Retrieve your weapons."

Cameron leaned down and grabbed the gun at his feet. The large rifle was difficult to pick up, but it was amazing what you could do with the right motivation. Three others failed to perform the movement properly. Soon three more sets of screams emitted from the fort. Five down, he only had fourteen more to beat.

Right shoulder… arms!"

Nearly half the company failed to perform the movement to the drill master preference. Six were taken out of formation, leaving only eight. Cameron began to shiver with fear; these were the best in the squad he was up against. He'd never managed to get this far. Some who were still around had won before, and the others had been close on many occasions. In front of him a cadet allowed his head to sag slightly to the left as the sun beat down on his neck. It was just enough for the drill master to notice. Then there were seven.

The weight of the weapon on his right shoulder dug into his flesh. He had to endure it though, no matter how much he wanted to give up and drop the heavy load onto the ground, he had to hold it…

"Assume push up position!"

_Oh God no._

The drill master only resorted to the pushups when he couldn't trick them into messing up anymore. Now they had to prove their strength and endurance in order to earn their reward. They dropped to the ground and lifted themselves up by their arms, waiting for the order to begin. The drill master dropped as well, daring anyone to try to do more then he. They all knew that was impossible. He could do one-hundred plus on any given day while the most any of them had done were thirty. One of the cadets collapsed as his hands slipped on the loose sand. Nobody looked.

Now there were only six.

Cameron's back quivered with pain. Scares from the previous day opened around his body, covering his uniform with a thin coating of blood and puss. His arms buckled but refused to give. Sweat obscured his vision.

"Ready, begin!"

The six remaining boys went down and touched their faces to the ground, only four came back up. Cameron was one of them. Again and again, the four of them went down and came back up to the rhythmic sound of their drill master cadence.

"One… two…three…"

"One!" they shouted as loud as their lungs allowed.

"One… two… three…"

"Two!"

The deadly game continued as the few that remained refused to give into the pain they felt. Pain was all in the mind, they'd been told, if you ordered your body to keep going it would. Cameron would like nothing more then to believe that, but as his arms began to quiver and his back sagged lower and lower he wondered how long he would be able to keep his mind believing that.

_On… two… three… _

_Five.._

_One…two… three…_

_Six. _

Another kid dropped out.

_One…two…three_

_Seven._

The drill master held himself in the upright position. One other cadet went down, anticipating the command. Now it was him and one more, one more to beat and he'd avoid the mind numbing torture for one day, one more to beat and his scares from the day before would have a little more time to heal. One more to beat, and he could hold his head high at havening been the only one left standing after a full day of training.

"On your feet!" the drill master shouted. In a heartbeat both cadets were standing, their guns still on their shoulders, ready for his next order.

"Stand at ease men," he said calmly. They obeyed.

This was it, the last two, the last ones left standing. All the rest had suffered their fate and were stinking in a cell somewhere waiting for these two to finish their match.

"Draw your blades men."

Neither hesitated, both drew the blades they wore at their sides and held them to their sides as they'd been trained.

"Face off!" the Drill Master shouted again. This was new, he'd never seen this before. What was he planning on them doing? Was he going to make them fight?

"Cadets, roll up your sleeves and hold out your arms. If you hesitate when I give you a command, you lose. Understood?!"

"Yes drill master!" they did as he said without hesitation. Cameron stared into the face of the other boy. He was taller then he, not older, but stronger and better looking. There was no way he'd beat this kid in a fight…

Without warning the drill master walked in front of them and sliced into their exposed arms with his blades. For a moment Cameron felt nothing but shock, but then the blinding heat of a cold fire rushed though his veins into his heart and mind. His body screamed with agonizing protest as its life blood escaped, but he stayed on his feet. He heard a scream pierce the air, but not his own; the scream belonged to the other boy.

_Yes! _His mind cried in triumph; he'd won! A smile crept across his face despite the agonizing pain as he watched the other boy fall to his knees clutching at his wounded arm. The cut would heal, he knew, but the humiliation he'd suffer as a result of giving into his pain would last forever.

"You lousy worm!" the drill master shouted, "You think you can survive a battle if you can't even handle a simple cut to your arm? You're a disgrace!"

The master turned around and faces Cameron, "cadet!"

"Yes drill master," he managed though clenched teeth.

"Take this piece of shit and throw him into cell nine. Well done."

"Okay children, now settle down, it's time for class," Sara waved her hands in the air franticly trying to gain the kids attention. First one, then the rest, took their seats. Sara looked at her class and sighed. She'd started out with only Sis's kids, thinking that would be a bit much to tackle by herself, but now she was the teacher for almost the entire town. There were almost two hundred children in the town, and each one of their parents wanted her to teach their kids and she just hated saying no to them. But she could only fit maybe twenty in the sorry excuse of a school she had.

What was she supposed to tell them? That she wasn't really a teacher? That she really didn't have the slightest clue what she was doing? Here she was, a C student at best in high school, trying to teach math to a room full of eager children.

"Okay quiet down, quiet down please." It was hard getting the children to do what she asked when she could barley stand because of her pregnancy, but she did have some helpers.

"Hey, everyone sit down!" Rachelle yelled from the back of the room. Her voice held authority over a lot of the other children and they quickly fell silent.

"Thank you Rachelle," Sara blink her way and gave her a nod. Rachelle smiled back and sat down in the back, keeping an eye on some of the more mischievous children. Becka sat on a front row seat just across from Sara. Her face was plain and emotionless, but her eyes twinkled with a desire to learn.

"Okay, today we're going to talk about long division."

The children moaned loudly in protest and Sara started her lecture. She smiled.

_Kids, _she thought and started the day of teaching.

Abelia rode on her hover bike, Ralltel following dutifully behind, towards the hill on which Crestview was built. In her side pouch she kept the mysterious cloth which Ralltel had found the day before, the cloth that would hopefully prove that Hellywood was once again kidnapping children to use in its armies. Dust leapt into the sky in great pilasters of sand and loose gravel; small deer jumped to the side to avoid being run down. She wasn't going to slow down, not now, not today.

Plarster yawned and looked over the vast fields which surrounded his town. Dozens of men, women, and children were already in the fields plowing the hard earth with their meager tools, their sweat and tears soaking the earth replacing the rain which rarely showed its face these days antmore. Stretching his arms to drive away the weariness which still haunted his waking hours he absently wandered down the hill on which the town was built towards the fields. He wasn't a farmer, he always told himself, he was a soldier by trade and by nature, a damn fine one at that, but even soldiers needed to help provide food when it was scarce and his services less needed. No food meant no money, and no money meant no materials with which to buy weapons, meaning he was out of a job. Well, it wasn't like he was doing much fighting these days, not with Sara insisting Crestview have no military arm with which to defend itself against possible attacks.

"If we don't have any weapons Hellywood and Zadi Bars won't feel threatened. They'll leave us alone because we have all the food," he remembered her saying one time. He snickered to himself. Oh, Sara, Sara, even though he respected her for what she had accomplished, despite of everything she'd been though, her delusions and idealistic goals of creating a peaceful world were more then a little laughable. He'd left Hellywood after Hamdo's death because he was tired of war, tired of hours of work with no rest, of bad food, little or no water, of disrespect and the brutality of officers; since Zadi Bars refused to take in former Hellywood soldiers the only place for him to go was Crestview where everyone was welcome. This was his home now, and all he wanted to do was protect it. He didn't share Sara's views of a peaceful world where people would sit down and talk about their problems before going to war; if you wanted peace you had to be ready to go to war. It grated him sometimes seeing the town so venerable to attack, but as long as Sara said so he'd have to bite his tong and live with it.

In the distance a large column of dust rose into the air, probably from one of the hover bikes everyone was using now a days. Crestview didn't have very many of them though, and those they did have were locked away to prevent theft.

_I wonder who that could be. _

As the bikes came into view he saw two small figures riding across the plains. Taking out a pair of binoculars and placing them to his eyes he peered down at them from his high vantage point. The face of the woman came into view first; Abelia. He smiled and returned the binoculars to their case. What could she want today?

People stood and gazed their way when Abelia rode past the endless wheat fields which surrounded the town of Crestview. She paid then no mind, not today. Let them stare. They wouldn't be staring for long.

They reached the bottom of the hill, stopped their bikes, and quickly dismounted. Ralltel held his hand over his nose.

"Damn it, why does this place always smell like a latrine when we get here?"

Abelia sent him a stern glance.

"Remember why we're here Ralltel."

"Yeah I'll remember; I'll try to anyway." He swatted at some flies buzzing around his neck.

A large bearded man carrying on his shoulders a back hoe strutted down the hill to greet them.

"Lady Abelia, oh I'm sorry, _commander_ Abelia, to what do we owe this great honor?"

She twitched in annoyance at his sarcastic greeting. She barley remembered Plarster from when he was a low ranking Hellywood officer, but she remembered thinking he was lazy, dirty, ill mannered, and possessing the intelligence of a retarded child. How he managed to become one of the most powerful men on the island was beyond her comprehension. He was the logistic officer, in charge of all food sells to her, Hellywood, and Zadi Bars. As such he single handedly controlled most of the island's food supplies. Miss Ringwalt was officially in charge, but in reality everything that came in and out of the town was under the watchful eye of this man.

Beside her Ralltel grimaced but held his temper like he'd been instructed to. He'd like nothing more then to rip this arrogant bastard to pieces, but like a good soldier he bid his time, waiting for the right moment. This was neither the time nor the place.

"It's very important that I speak with Miss Ringwalt," she stated as matter as fact as she could. His smile disappeared.

"Now why would you want to bother Miss. Ringwalt again? What could you possibly have to say that is so important?"

"That is none of your business."

"If it involves Miss Ringwalt and this town then it is my business," he shot back.

"This is for her eyes only."

"Fuck you!"

The next instant Ralltel had his knife to the mans throat.

"You will refer to my commanding officer with the respect she deserves, do you understand me?"

Plarster's eyes narrowed and focused on Ralltel's face, studying him, trying to figure out if he meant what he said. She, of course, knew better. Ralltel would never disobey an order, and he'd been ordered many times not to kill any inhabitant of Crestview, nor to spill unnecessary blood. Not to say he couldn't scare them if the need arose. His eyes pierced his opponents like daggers though a fresh carcass.

"All right, all right," Plarster raised his hands in surrender, "take it easy now, I meant no offense."

"Apologize to Commander Abelia pig," he pressed the knife against his neck hard enough to hurt yet soft enough to not draw any blood.

"That's enough Ralltel," Abelia spoke up before her LT could do any harm. Slowly, deliberately, Ralltel loosened his grip on the mans shirt and slid his knife back into its sheath.

"You might want to keep a closer leash on your dog there, _commander_. At any rate Sara can't see you right this minute."

"I promise you this is very much worth the time."

"No, I mean she won't see you right now. She's busy. Unless you can prove this is really something in need of her attention you'll just have to wait."

"What could she possibly be doing that's so important?" Ralltel growled in frustration. Plarster smirked.

"Right now she's probably teaching a roomful of children to add and subtract."

Ralltel sat with his back to a wall, methodically chewing on a piece of straw wheat. His eyes stared absently into the cloudy sky. Storm clouds rolled in from the east changing the sky from a lush hue of blue and gold to a dark and uninviting grey. Abelia stood by her hover bike waiting patently for Plarster to deliver her message to Miss Ringwalt.

"That bastard," Ralltel said under his breath, "what the hell could be taking so long?" he spat the piece of wheat out of his mouth and tapped his foot.

She remained silent. Patience, as Miss Ringwalt had do eloquently put it once, was a virtue, was it not? But even her patience had its limits. She desperately needed to speak to Miss Ringwalt, and soon. If Hellywood somehow discovered she was away from the mountains they'd cut her off and take her while she tried to return; or maybe they'd attack the front lines. Either way it was dangerous for her to be away from her men for so long.

The door to the small shack in front of them, the school apparently, opened and out walked Plarster pushing Miss Ringwalt in a small wheelchair. Some young children peeked their heads out the door and watched as she was wheeled down the hill to where Abelia was waiting. Miss Ringwalt turned and gave them a harsh look and they fled back inside.

"Miss Ringwalt," Abelia said when she was close enough, "how good of you to see us."

"Ahh, it's Sara, Abelia, Sara. And I'm sorry but can you make this quick? I have a class to teach."

"I realize this, and I assure you I wouldn't be wasting your time if it wasn't of great importance."

She sighed. "Okay, what is it?"

Abelia took the piece of red clothing out of her pouch and held it into the light. Sara's eyes opened wide in astonishment, her hands began to quiver, the color flushed out of her cheeks.

"Wh- where did you get that?"

"Do you know what this is?" Abelia asked even though she already knew the answer. Miss Ringwalt nodded her head slowly almost as if she didn't believe what she saw. Abelia lay it in the girls lap, "is it from your world?"

"It can't be. Where did you get this?" she said though her voice was faint.

"Ralltel?" Abelia turned and faced his LT. Ralltel stood and addressed Miss Ringwalt like he'd been instructed to, like she was a superior.

"We found it yesterday afternoon in Hellywoods trash deposits," Plarster snickered a little at that but Ralltel ignored him, "we've been keeping a close eye on Hellywoods activities lately because of their operations against us and have noticed an increase in activity then is normal even in a time of war. We've also seen a surge in the number of troops they've been throwing into battle lately"

"Get to the point will you?" Plarster growled angrily. Miss Ringwalt taped him on the hand and he fell silent.

"Are you saying they've been traveling to my world?" she asked, the color returning to her eyes.

"We believe so," Abelia answered.

Miss Ringwalt sat there for a moment unblinking. Abelia watched as she stared at the ground. Her palms flattened and cupped her knees. It was all a little too fast, she could tell; Sara had dedicated her life, after Hamdo's death, to keeping the peace and making sure war never again violated another child in this world. What she was being asked to do now was to abandon all hope for peace, to embrace defeat and face it head on.

"Okay," she finally said, "you win Abelia," she faced Plarster, "will you push me back? I want to finish my class."

"No problem."

Abelia watched as Plarster pushed the young girl back up the hill and into the school house. Small children squealed in delight when she opened the door, some coming out to help push her back inside. Instantly her face changed. The sullenness and defeat in her gaze disappeared and light returned to her eyes. She smiled, and for a moment Abelia saw her how she really was.

Ending Lullaby.

Always, all the time, I will be watching you.

So put your mind at ease and go to sleep.

This world, where we've grown accustomed to hurting each other—

This is where we were born and grew up.


	7. Episode 20 War

10

Jonathan Lane.

Because ten billion

Year's time is so fragile,

So ephemeral…

It arouses such a

Bittersweet,

Almost heartbreaking fondness.

Prolog.

"We cannot cut off Hellywoods food supply, this is madness!"

"What is mad is ignoring the clear threat they pose to you and all those under your care," Abelia snapped back venomously. She stood in front of a large gathering of the villages elders, trying to convince them they had no choice but to abandon their pacifist stance and actually stand up for their most sacred beliefs.

The dissent from these villagers was infuriating; didn't any of them realize the threat Hellywood posed to their peace and security? What a bunch of lousy hypracrits, bickering endlessly, doing absolutely nothing. Weren't these the people who bolstered nonstop about the importance of protecting their children? Weren't these the ones who pretended they were more noble and civilized, that those who shared "their" island were nothing more then hateful warmongers?

And yet now, when the time had come for them to stand for their principles, when the children they'd sworn to protect were in danger, they moaned and complained like unsatisfied whores. Disgusting

Sara sat in her wheelchair in one corner, holding one hand over her belly, humming softly to herself. Her eyes were distant and cold, her hair streaked with grey it seemed. Her fingers shook as she tried to stay calm.

"That would mean war. A war we are not prepared to fight. To start a war we cannot win would irresponsible to those already in our care," another council member argued. Half a dozen nodded their heads in agreement.

"What about the children already taken into captivity? What about those who've already been killed and wounded in battle? Do you not care about them? Are you willing to allow their suffering to continue while you sit here and do nothing? You unimaginable hypocrites!" She was shouting now, her lungs aching from the effort, but she didn't care; these people needed to wake up and smell the fucking gunpowder.

Shouts of anger and disapproval rang from the halls.

Of course she didn't care much if Hellywood was kidnapping children for their army; she didn't like it because it gave her enemy an unfair advantage, of course, but it wasn't a morally offensive issue for her. For these people, however, these self righteous pigs who knew no greater joy then when they were thumping their noses at their neighbors, they should be marching to Hellywood this very moment with shovels and pitchforks. Had they grown so used to peace that they were willing to sacrifice everything, even their principles (if they ever really had any), to maintain it?

"It is a sad day when Lady Abelia accuses _us _of hypracracy. Who the hell are you to lecture us?"

She slammed her fists on the table before her and screamed into the air. The crowd went silent. Sara didn't move or bat an eye, "look around you damn it! Do you think Hellywood has allowed this village to survive for so long out of courtesy? Do you honestly think they'll let you survive much longer now that you know the truth?"

A man stood. Abelia looked his way and saw that it was Plarster.

"You lousy sons of bitches, this is not the time for fucking arguments. Something has to be done, now!" he shouted.

"What do you suggest, marching to Hellywood with nothing but farming tools and storming the gates?" another elder asked sarcastically.

"Cut off all food supplies to Hellywood," Plarster spoke, "and ally ourselves with Zadi Bars. Then we evacuate all women and children while the men stay here with me and defend the town."

"Zadi Bars won't take us in."

"They will. They need our food just as much as Hellywood does; they can't afford to lose it, which is exactly what would happen if Hellywood invaded."

Abelia stood to the side and allowed Plarster speak the others into agreement. It was incredible, she thought. They refused to listen to a thing she said, but as soon as one of their own spoke it was gospel to them. So many sheep, it was surprising that a shepherd hadn't come sooner to lead these people. But perhaps that's what was happening this very moment. A shepherd had finally emerged, or perhaps a wolf to lead them to their deaths. Either way they were doing what she wanted; their intentions meant nothing so long as her goals were accomplished.

Plarster continued to speak to the council members, laying out a carefully drawn out plan that had obviously been in the works for some time. It was crude, terribly flawed, and depended more on luck then skill, but with her men and expertise it could be made near perfect.

**NOWandTHEN****,****HEREandTHERE****. **

Episode 20;

War.

Sara listened with a deaf ear to the loud chatter and useless discussion which bounced from one side of the building to the next like a tennis match.

She'd called a meeting of the town's leaders to discuss what should be done, but she already knew what would happen. There would be a few dissenters, but in the end most of them would side with Abelia. After that, who knew?

Hellywood would respond, of course, it was only a matter of how and when. No one, not even Abelia, seemed to know what that might mean, but it would be devastating, and they needed to be ready when it happened. That wasn't her role here, however. She was nothing more then a symbolic leader, the real power in this city rested in the hands of the elders who were themselves under the sway of Plarster. So went he, so went the Council, and right now he was leaning towards war.

Abelia stood silently in the corner now, watching the crowd with a knowing smile on her face. Sara looked into the woman's eyes for a moment before looking away. Those eyes, those indifferent determined eyes were the same ones that looked her in the face that fateful morning. Those eyes were the same probably that stared down the insanity of Hamdo for so many years and obeyed. They were the eyes of a hawk, or maybe those of a shark. Dark, lifeless, fearless; intent on its mission regardless of anything else.

And right now they were focused on Plarster and his "plan" for war.

"What does Sara have to say about this?" an old man said, standing so everyone could see, "if anyone in this city has the right to decide whether or not we go to war, it is she."

Abelia shifted her gaze from Plarster and looked Sara in the eyes. Sara looked away. For a moment though she saw a look of uncertainty in Abelia's eyes, as if she didn't know what was going to happen. Good to know that women was still human after all.

Sara looked at the men assembled and replied; "I'm sorry, but it is not my place to make these kinds of decisions. I care for the children, I feed them, I teach them, I give them a home and a mother if necessary. But I do not decide whether or not their parents may go to war."

"But you must have an opinion," the old man continued, "one such as yourself, with the experiences you have, must have some very strong opinions on the matter."

Anger cursed through Sara's veins. Everyone in this room, except maybe for Abelia's LT, knew about her past, knew who's baby it was she was carrying. They already knew she'd been through more then most still alive, there was no reason for this pompous fool to remind everyone. But to them she was just the girl carrying someone's bastard child, who took care of the kids and whose opinion may be useful at a time like this but wouldn't be called for otherwise. It was convenient to have her support their views but a mere amusement otherwise. In other words, she was a convenience to be used, not a valued member of their society.

It was if she was being raped all over again.

She didn't answer, merely sat in her wheelchair, her callused fingers interlocked and placed firmly in her lap. What did it matter to these people what she said? No matter if she gave her endorsement for the war or forbade it, these they would do as they pleased regardless. Well, they wanted her opinion, she might as well give it to them.

"Ms.?"

"What do you all want from me!?" she snapped. Her eyes flashed with furry, her hands shaking nervously, but her voice stood firm with conviction, "you want my opinion? You want to know what I have to say? Well I'll tell you, I want every Hellywood bastard that ever lived to burn in hell, is that what you want me to say? Hmm? I would like nothing more than to see every last one of those sons of bitches dead in the dirt where their flesh can be eaten by crows" she drilled Abelia with a cold demonic stare as she said these words; the woman didn't even flinch, "but if I had to choose between that and the well being of my children, I'd say it would not be worth it. My children come first, before anything else. If you can defeat Hellywood without hurting any of them, so be it, but somehow I doubt you can give me that promise."

The hall was silent. Not even Plarster, who'd been engaged in a rather animated conversation with one of his security guards, spoke a word. Abelia leaned against the wall eyeing her with a knowing stare. For the time being, talk of war was halted. There would be no decision on the matter today, not while her words were fresh in the ears of the vein old men who sat before her. For today, at least, the peace would be preserved.

***

Tabool smiled as his latest recruit dragged the lifeless body of his fallen oponant into the fort and to his cell. He didn't know if that boy had what it took to be a first class soldier yet, but for now at least he'd proven his worth. Tabool was sure to get a promotion now, maybe even his own combat squad made up of some of the new cadets. Sure they were raw now, but just wait till he was through with them, oh yeah; they'd be the best soldiers in all of Hellywood. Soon, he thought, soon they would fight in a real war. Soon they'd be ordered to march over Crestview, take their people hostage, and then move on to Zadi Bars. The world was theirs for the taking. Abelia was small fry now. She thought she was all that, hell even the General thought she was all that, but she wasn't; not really. Other then hiding out in her precious mountains and caves there really wasn't anything she could do. Hellywood had more weapons. Hellywood had more soldiers, they and knew how to get more soldiers which counted for even more.

Tabool twitched in irritation when he thought of all they could do with that bound system. Why stop at children? They could steal weapons, materials, anything they wanted. To think that Hamdo had put so much time and effort into kidnapping Lala Ru for her water when he could have just as easily stolen it from that other world. What had that old bastard been thinking? The fool had killed himself over his obsession with her.

There was a lull in the fighting for now. Since their latest loss nobody seemed eager to go after Abelia in her mountains again. Cowards. They were all cowards. They all wanted to conquer the world, oh yes they all wanted that, but no one seemed eager to go out and take it. To TAKE IT! Zadi Bars wasn't going to just let them have it, Abelia wasn't just going to flop over and die like a lame dog; they were going to have to fight them; sooner or later, but he preferred sooner.

Tabool descended a flight of stairs from the platform where he was watching the new recruits and made his way to the ground floor. Most veteran troops were taking R&R for the day. That's another reason the good general was in charge, he knew what troops needed and cared about them to an extent. R&R was almost unheard of when Hamdo was running the show, now it was common practice. Tabool stepped into the blazing sun and made his way to the perimeter fence surrounding the base.

"Tabool, nice of you to show up," Nahrim called to him as he approached, "where were you?"

"Watching the recruits get their asses kicked," he smirked.

"How'd out little man Cameron do? Whipped? Sodomized? Eaten by rats?" a knowing smile crossed his face. "So, what are our orders today, sir?"

Tabool held out a piece of paper for Nahrim to read. Nahrim scanned the paper, his smile slowly fading as he finished.

"They want us to what?"

"I know," Tabool replied, shaking his head.

"But that doesn't make any sense. Why would they want us to be way the hell over there?"

"What, you don't think watching farmers and school children will be fun?"

"Not particularly, no."

"Well, those are our orders, like them or not."

"Nice to know the higher ups think so highly of our abilities," he said with a sarcastic smirk.

"Speak for yourself asshole." They both laughed.

"Well," Nahrim said, "let's do this."

***

General Scholes stared at the piece of paper before him with disbelief. His spy, a man he'd known since the Unification Wars and in whom he had absolute confidence, stood back observing his reactions.

"This can't possibly be right."

"Sir, if I hadn't been there and seen it with my own two eyes I wouldn't believe it either, but this is the truth."

"But how could they have possibly known? We took every precaution to keep what we were doing a secret. This just doesn't make any sense."

The General leaned over the paper, reading the spy's report one more time making sure he didn't miss anything important. Maybe there was a giant "haha, April Fools" written on the bottom. No such luck.

"So you believe they intend to go to war?"

"Yes sir, I do."

The General sighed. With the current war with Abelia going badly, the last thing he wanted to do was declare another. But with this news, what else could he do? Without food from Crestview he only had enough supplies to last two weeks. They needed Crestview's food, that was just a fact of life they'd come to accept. But so did Abelia, so did Zadi Bars, although they relied on it to a slightly lesser extent because of their massive fishing fleet. If he invaded Crestview the whole island would be at war with him the next day. He had confidence in his men's capabilities, and the capabilities of his weapons; however, they were few, Zadi Bars were many. Untrained, unskilled, and lacking the weapons of modern war, but sometimes numbers were all you needed to turn a battle. He'd avoided a war with Zadi Bars thus far for that very reason while he slowly built his forces to a point where he felt confident he could crush his enemies. The war with Abelia certainly did not help in that regard.

"How long would it be before we can launch an attack?" he asked, turning to his logistical officer, Captain Redman.

"I've already made preparations for this scenario. We can have our men ready at full strength on the Crestview border by tomorrow morning."

"I've dispatched scouts to survey the land around the town and ascertain their present military capabilities," the spy continued.

"And these men haven't been detected yet?"  
"The enemy seems preoccupied with battle plans that they've neglected to set a decent watch."

"Hmm, figures. They spend the last year farming and growing fat that they forget how to fight. Give the order. I want the rest of my men ready for attack within 48 hours."

"Yes sir," the spy replied, giving the general a sharp salute before leaving to carry out his command. General Scholes turned his attention to the map of the island hanging on his wall and imagined dozens of machines and soldiers racing north towards the boarders of Crestview. Red arrows marked the areas where his captains believed the attack should come from. Some wanted to invade Zadi Bars in a pre-emptive strike before they took Crestview, others wanted to go on the defensive and allow Zadi Bars's armies to break themselves on Hellywoods massive defenses.

It didn't matter what tactic they used. In the end, despite the losses they were sure to suffer, Hellywood would be the only power left in the world.

In all things, Hellywood prevailed.

***

"No Sara, I cannot in good faith do it right now without the proper medicine, it's too risky."

Sara wanted so bad to throw something at this man. This well meaning, naïve, infuriating old man. Who the hell was he to tell her what she could and could not do with her own body? She knew he was stalling. It'd been more than a week since she told him she wanted an abortion and yet here he was, telling her to wait for medicine from Zadi Bars to come in when she knew very well he had everything he needed right here in his office.

She'd come here this morning for a simple answer; was he, or was he not, going to perform an abortion. If so, great. If not, she'd find another way.

"What do you mean it's too risky? I've seen you bring babies into this world without even breaking a sweat, I've seen you amputate a man's arm without any medicine, what makes this any different?"  
"Because I've never done an abortion before, I just want to make sure I don't botch anything and end up hurting you."

"Dr, look at me." She placed her hand on her belly and felt a small kick from the thing growing inside her. Dr. Thomas Mirgrep glanced at her from his place behind a large wooden desk cluttered with ancient medical books stolen from Hellywood and scattered supplies he didn't have a place for.

"I am not going to have this baby. If I have to stab myself with a hanger, I'll do it. Are you going to make me go through that?"

"Sara, you know how I feel about this."

"I know, and I'm sorry to put you in this position, but please understand. I can't have this baby. I can't care for it. I don't want to be reminded of what happened to me every time I look into its face. I just can't live with that."

"But maybe you could give her up. I'm sure someone would love to raise your child."

_Her? _Sara thought for a moment, deeply annoyed, _like you could possibly know it's a girl. _

"This town already has too many orphans without a place to go. It can't go to Zadi Bars, they wouldn't take her. I can't give it to Abelia or God forbid Hellywood, where else can it go? No, I can't go through with this."

"But Sara, you can't just kill your child…"

"It's not a fucking child!"

"Please, just think about what you're doing, that's all I ask."

"You think I haven't thought about this already? It's not like your helping any with your God damned stalling."

"Don't you think your being a little selfish?"  
She really did throw something at him then. Nothing big, no, just an empty plastic bottle that once held some medicine, but it struck him right between the eyes.

"Selfish? Is that what you think this is? Me being selfish? You know what, yeah, fine, maybe I am being a little selfish. Maybe I just can't deal with the rape, or the abuse, or the this and the that, and I'm just doing this to make me feel better. Oh fucking well. It's not like I haven't done enough for you people, no, now I have to have this baby that I didn't choose to have so _you _won't have to get your hands dirty because _I'm _being selfish!"

She was out of breath. All that yelling and screaming, it wasn't good for a pregnant woman. Oh the irony.

"You done?" the Dr asked. When she didn't respond, he got up and wiped his glasses clean.

"We all suffered in the war Sara, your story is no different than dozens of others I've heard. Did you know I had a daughter once? She was about your age. A little older, a little more naïve, but not much different from you if I remember right."

"You think this is going to make me change my mind?"

"No, not really, I just need to say it. My point is that despite what you may think you don't have to go through with this. What you've gone through, as terrible as it was, is nothing different then what dozens of other women have gone through."

"Well I'm not the, okay? This isn't what I wanted, no one asked me, no one gave me a choice. Well I'm making my choice now. _This_ is what I want."

Stepping around the desk, Thomas walked took her hand in his own. She felt bad for the man. He really didn't want to do this. Not because he thought she was being selfish or that there were parents out there who could care for it, but because he honest to God thought it was wrong. Like Shu would have said, life is too precious to throw away. But it wasn't a life, it was just a thing at this point.

"I know Sara, I'll give you what you want if only to keep you from mutilating yourself. I'll make things ready."

Letting go, he turned and walked towards his operating room which doubled as a supply closet.

"Thomas," she said, "what happened to her?"

"Oh, much the same thing happened to you more or less. Got pregnant, not raped just made a bad decision, and decided to have an abortion," he paused for a moment, "Dr who did it was a hack. She died during the operation."

She stared at him for a moment, too stunned to respond. Could just be another trick to make her change her mind, but the look in his eyes told her different.

"I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be, I don't apologize for thing's I didn't do, you shouldn't either. And don't worry, that guy was a fraud, I'm not."  
He smiled and stepped out of the room. It was then that the bombs began to fall.

At first she thought it might be thunder. It was very cloudy when she stepped outside this morning and she could feel the moister building in the air. They needed the rain, God knows it.

When the earth shook underneath her and what could only be rocks rained down on the roof however, she knew it was no thunder.

Hellywood was coming.


	8. Episode 21 The Lost Return

6

Because ten billion

Year's time is so fragile,

So ephemeral…

It arouses such a

Bittersweet,

Almost heartbreaking fondness.

Prolong

"Cover me!" Tabool shouted, loading a fresh clip into his assault rifle.

"I've got your back," replied Nahrim.

"Good, one, two…"

Tabool dashed out of the giant crater they were using as cover. Two defenders went down as Nahrim unleashed a hail of bullets on their defensive line. Both held their heads low as two Tatsu War Dragons fired a series of unguided rockets on the town. Behind them three mechanized soldiers slowly made their way towards the front lines spitting death from their giant machine guns. Slow motherfuckers, the battle would probably be over before they ever reached the town, but their cover fire was much appreciated.

"Alright, now you cover me!" Nahrim shouted above the noise of the battle.

"Well hurry your fat ass up!"

Cries of dismay from the opposing forces could be heard over the dim of battle. Through the streets dozens of women and children, caught by surprise by the sudden and overwhelming attack, fled aimlessly in every direction while their men hopelessly tried to by them time. It was too late for that. Hellywood's armies had achieved complete surprise. When the bombs fell only a handful of armed guards stood watch over their boarders and they'd been dealt with quickly by Hellywoods superior soldiers.

Now, as Tabool and Nahrim made their way up the hill towards the center of town with ridiculous ease, few remained to stand in their way.

Tabool looked around. They were too far ahead. The rest of the squad was a good hundred yards back still trying to crawl their way out of the trenches and up the hill. Tatsu's and Mechanized Soldiers charged ahead of his position, punching fresh holes in the defenders already broken lines, but they would simply pass over a lot of the defending troops leaving the infantry to mop up whoever remained.

This was not good.

"Hey Nahrim, I think we may have gone too far!"

Nahrim quickly looked over his shoulder and saw for himself that they were all alone on top of the hill.

"Fuck me! What the hell are they doing way back there!?"

"Hell if I know!"

"Well get over here!"

A series of explosions tore through the ground separating Tabool from the squad that'd fallen behind. Mortars. He hadn't know Crestview had fucking mortars!

"Hey Tabool, mother fuckers have mortars!"  
"No shit!"

The fire stopped. Taking advantage of the time Tabool looked over the rim of his crater and saw the mortar team that was keeping his squad mates down concealed by a camouflage net and hidden from the Tatsu's line of sight by a large wooden building.

_If I only had a fucking radio right now I'd just get the Tatsu's to take them out. Guess I'll have to do it the old fashioned way. _

Seeing his opportunity he stood quickly and ran towards Nahrims position, keeping his head low and dodging several bullets which whipped past his head and kicked up dirt at his feet. Thankfully his friend had the frame of mind to provide at least a little cover fire for his movements.

"We're going to take out those mortars."

His friend took a look for himself and smiled.

"You really have your heart set on being a hero don't you?"

"Don't be an idiot."

"Too late for that I'm afraid."

"Right," he stuck his head out of their crater, trained his rifle on a teenage boy keeping watch over the mortar team, and squeezed the trigger. Three bullets flew from the barrel. Three bullets missed their target, but the boys head was down.

"Go!" Nahrim burst from cover and sprinted forward toward the enemy lines.

**NOWandTHEN****,****HEREandTHERE****.**

Episode 21:

The Lost Return.

The streets were crowded today, no surprise there, they were almost every day this early in the morning. Rats scurried around in the wet gutters unnoticed by the men who walk above them decked out in their suits and ties. It sickened him sometimes to see their phony smiles and their expensive watches purchased overseas. In a world where most people went to bed each night starving what right did they have to luxury? What right had they to privilege and wealth? He wanted to run up and grab them by their necks, _PEOPLE ARE DIEING YOUR ARROGENT BASTARD!_

But he didn't, he knew better. Why? Because he'd done it before. Nothing changed; the rich stayed rich while the poor huddled together in the sewers with the rats. There was no use worrying about it now, he was already late for school.

Sometimes he didn't know why he bothered to go anymore. They could teach him all the math and literature they wanted but it wouldn't make him a better person. It wouldn't fill the gaping hole he felt every day deep inside his chest gnawing away at his soul and his sanity.

When he returned he knew from the beginning that things were different. He thought he'd be able to cope with the change, to re-assimilate to a normal life. This was a normal life. Hellywood wasn't normal.

At least, he used to think that. It didn't take long to find out how wrong he was. Hellywood _was_ normal.

He saw it in the evening news.

He heard it in the crowded allies and back roads, could smell it in the dense city air, feel its oppressive weight pressing down on him everywhere he went. He saw it when he slept, when he ate a fine meal, as he dressed for school, when he brushed his teeth. It was a part of him now, maybe more a part of him then his old beliefs ever were.

Most people were good? Deep down where it really mattered most everyone was a decent person? What a joke! People weren't good. People were horrible, nasty, brutish, evil little animals who cared about no one but themselves.

All the good people of this world were now dead. Nothing to do now but except that.

People avoided him as he walked up the steps to class. They were scared. Understandable considering the massive beatings he used to deal to his Kendo opponents before finally being banned from the sport, and just when he was getting good too. At first his teachers praised his newly found skill. He was far more creative, cunning, and thoughtful in his approach then he ever was before. As the weeks and the months went on, however, his aggression grew. It wasn't long before he landed someone in the hospital; it wasn't long after that before he almost killed another.

Life, it seemed, wasn't so precious to him after all.

***

Two months. For two months he'd been missing. Gone without a trace, and then back without a warning. His parents thought he was dead, his closest friends all moved on. But one day, like nothing had happened, he walked into his house wearing the same cloths he wore when he disappeared, with a big stupid grin on his face.

An investigation followed. Naturally, he told the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God. At first they dismissed his claims as absurd, but when he mentioned Sara and they did a little fact checking things got a little interesting. Turns out she was a real person (surprise, surprise) who'd been kidnapped from her home in Florida (yup, American, just like she said) not long before he disappeared. They never found any trace of her.

Strange how this random kid from Japan just happened to go missing around the same time she did, then show's up two months later knowing details about her kidnapping he couldn't possibly know, and then to top it all off claims to have known her in some alternate universe where they were both kidnapped and made in to slaves. A mystery! Call in the detectives!  
In the end, however, they couldn't accept his story, nor could they deny the startling truth of what he knew. He went through counseling. Doctors dressed up all nice and pretty pried into his mind trying to find the truth as they saw it; a truth they could come to accept without leaving their safe little world and believe something they'd been preprogrammed to dismiss as nonsense. They dug and they pried and they manipulated trying their absolute best to come up with an answer that made sense to them but it all boiled down to the same old thing.

After a time, though, even he started to doubt his story. It really was too wild to believe, wasn't it? That he'd been kidnapped by soldiers from an alternate universe who drove giant snake machines and robots? That all they were after the whole time was some girl who could manipulate water called Lala Ru? Absurd, insane, preposterous, and a million other words they used to describe his story when he wasn't looking. Besides, if this Hamdo character really wanted water so badly, why not just take it from this world? Doh!

So he began to doubt.

A little at first, just the details and specifics of his ordeal. Then, as the counseling continued in earnest and his parents and what few friends he had left begged him to tell them the truth, his whole ordeal came into question.

One thing was for sure though. No matter what it was that had happened to him, he wasn't the same light hearted carefree person he was almost a year ago. Things had changed. He had changed. There was no going back to the way things were, his eyes had been opened and there was no closing them again.

"Welcome home Shu," his mom said as he walked through the front door into his house, "how was school today?"

"It was okay," he sulked, grabbing a drink from the cupboard and sitting down at the table.

"Anything interesting happen?"

"No," he suddenly lost interest in the drink and set it down untouched, "not really."

"Well," she tried to continue, but couldn't think of anything new to say. She tried to smile in his direction, but even that was too hard for her. Typical. Even his own mother thought him a monster now.

***

The sun set behind the smokestacks in the distance casting large shadows streaking across the ground. Shu picked up his backpack and looked on as the huge orange sun disappeared over the mountains, and laughed. He was home.

"Home," he said to no one, basking in sights and smells of the city, "YAHOO!!!"

He took off running. Through alleys he once knew well, past well lit buildings housing families sitting down for dinner, over the bridge that spanned the Haku River, towards _his_ home. Towards _his_ family.

"Mom!" he cried, turning the corner that would take him to his home, "  
hey mom, dad, I'm home!"

"Shu?" his next door neighbor said as he passed her on the street.

"Mom, dad, I'm home!" he cried bursting through the front door. Around their kitchen table his mother, father, and little sister, Lavi, sat eating dinner. A picture of him in his Kendo gear, smiling goofily at the camera, stood in the middle of the table.

"Shu?"

"It's Shu!" Lavi sprang to her feet and rushed him, "I knew you weren't dead, didn't I mom? I told you! I told you Shu couldn't die!"

"Oh my God, Shu, your home!" his mother stood slowly and walked to her son, unbelieving. She touched his face, felt the scares on his cheeks, smelled the death lingering still on his clothing.

"Son, where were you? We thought you were dead," father came and wrapped his arms around his son.

"It was weird, there was this mean lady, Abelia, and she came with these big machines and kidnapped me. She took me to her world. It was awful. They did terrible things there, but everything's okay now, I stopped them…"

"Whow, stop Shu, your rambling."

"You're not real," his mother said suddenly, backing away from him and clasping her hands to her chest, "you're not my son, you can't be. You can't be."

"Mom, it's me, I know I've been gone a while, but… hey, how long _was _I gone?"

"You were gone two months," Lavi exclaimed, "everyone thought you were dead, I told them you weren't but they wouldn't believe me!"

"Lavi, come over here," his mother said, still standing against the wall.

"Mom, it's okay, it's just Shu."

"Get away from him!"

"Mom it's just me! Look at me, I'm real!"

"No you're not, you're not my son! My son is dead!"

"But I'm not dead mom…"

"You're fucking dead! My son died, so who the hell are you!?"

In hindsight maybe she was right. He wasn't Shu anymore, at least not the Shu she knew before his kidnapping. Sure he may look the same but everything else about him had changed. It wasn't readily apparent that first night when he'd come rushing through his front door rambling on about robots, strange girls, and mad kings, but insanity has an odd way of sneaking up on people when they're not looking, and most certainly was not looking. Lavish gifts were bestowed upon him those first few days by well wishers, friends of the family, even a couple of his own friends, but they all went home talking about how depressing he was.

Oh well, nothing to do about all that now, he was late for another one of those oh so fun psychiatric evaluation appointments they still made him go to, and it wouldn't do him any good to be late.

Suddenly a bright flashing light appeared overhead, blinding him momentarily. Time seemed to stop; birds froze in midair, children playing in the river suddenly stopped as if someone had pressed the pause button on a TV.

_Oh no, oh no no no no no no! Not again, not again!_

As suddenly as it appeared the light was gone. Time returned to normal; the birds continued on their course, the children fell from the sky and splashed merrily in the water, laughing and giggling like nothing had happened. He was still here though. Nothing was missing that he could see, no giant robots or snakes fell from the sky. Nothing happened. Perhaps he really was going crazy. Crazy people sometimes black out, don't they? Maybe that's what just happened.

"Hello Shu," a familiar voice said behind him. For a moment time seemed to pause again, only this time without the blinding light. He knew that voice; how could he not? It haunted his dreams every night he managed to close his eyes (which wasn't often anymore), it followed him in the streets, to school, in his home. Yes, he knew that voice.

Turning around he looked into the eyes of someone he never thought he'd see again, and smiled.

"Hey Sara."

Ending Lullaby.

Always, all the time, I will be watching you.

So put your mind at ease and go to sleep.

This world, where we've grown accustomed to hurting each other—

This is where we were born and grew up.


End file.
